George Herbert

I love listening to Melvin Bragg's In Our Time, on Thursday mornings, and this Thursday's programme was particularly interesting for me. The subject was the Metaphysical and devotional poet - George Herbert.

I have loved George Herbert's poetry for decades. George Herbert led me to my favourite poet: Richard Crashaw, who was a disciple of Herbert's. Herbert's poetry wasn't highly regarded in his lifetime, although other poets did try to imitate him, of whom the most distinguished was Henry Vaughan. Crashaw’s poetry was considered too Catholic and Baroque to be well-regarded in his lifetime. It took centuries for all these poets to be critically acclaimed, when T S Eliot dubbed them the Metaphysicals and brought them to public notice.

Herbert, however, did receive recognition in his lifetime, mainly for his Latin verse, and The Temple was published posthumously in 1633. This collection of verse was extremely popular and spoke across the religious divide in a way that poets like Richard Crashaw and Robert Southwell never could.

Herbert then fell into obscurity, and no new editions appeared between 1709 and 1799. In the 19th century, Herbert was championed by Coleridge and Ruskin and, in America, by Emerson. Opinion as to the value of his work continued to be divided until the 1930s, when Eliot made a very influential contribution to the debate. Since then his reputation has been secure.

I found the discussion on In Our Time fascinating, especially the biographical information I didn’t know, but most interesting was the connection with Wendy Cope. I thought I had read all of Cope’s poems, until I discovered that there was a poem about George Herbert, and that she is a big admirer of  Herbert’s poetry.

Dear George, although I do not share your faith,
A faith expressed in poems I revere,
Revere and love, I offer you this wreath,
A wreath of words, like yours, although I fear,
I fear it won't be worthy of the man,
The awe-inspiring man who loved to play,
To play with words, to make them rhyme and scan
Scan and rhyme and at the same time say,
Say something true: the truth about your fear,
Your fear, your anger and your love. a wreath,
A humble wreath for someone I revere,
Revere and love, though I can't share your faith.

Well, I was so surprised to read this poem. Firstly, because I had not known of Cope’s strong connection to Herbert, but mainly because she describes my own relationship with Richard Crashaw. Cope, in an article on Herbert says "over the years, critics have discussed whether or not one needs to be a believing Christian to appreciate Herbert's poems. I can answer this question with confidence: one does not." I'm often asked why I have a connection with Crashaw and the Recusant poets of the 16th and 17th centuries. I don't share their faith either, but I, like Wendy Cope, appreciate their passion and exuberance.

One of the things I love most about In Our Time is the connections and new discoveries it makes. My favourite George Herbert poem is:

LOVE bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back,
            Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
    From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
            If I lack’d anything.

‘A guest,’ I answer’d, ‘worthy to be here:’
            Love said, ‘You shall be he.’
‘I, the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear,
            I cannot look on Thee.’
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
            ‘Who made the eyes but I?’

‘Truth, Lord; but I have marr’d them: let my shame
            Go where it doth deserve.’
‘And know you not,’ says Love, ‘Who bore the blame?’
            ‘My dear, then I will serve.’
‘You must sit down,’ says Love, ‘and taste my meat.’
            So I did sit and eat.