Redemption & Easter Wings

I have continued to push on with postings here travelling one by one through George Herbert’s The Temple, not minding the season, as his works pass through the Death and Resurrection of Christ a few weeks ahead of our calendar.

But these two deserve a little mention. Having read around a little, I think they are two of his most famous works. First,

Redemption

is a sonnet. We run after Christ with Herbert looking for a chance to apply to Him for a change in our standing, or residence, as it were, for the better. We look in heaven and, finding He has left, in earthly high places. However, we actually find Him among His crucifiers and mockers on the cross, and meaningfully He grants the appeal with His last breath before dying. The second,

Easter Wings

is an example of what is called a “concrete poem”, in which the lines of the work sketch out in space some shape accordant with the subject of the work – in this case, wings. This is today’s post, and it is a splendid, beautiful little thing. The goal is to rise up as if on lark-wings, but we find with Herbert we are decayed and poor, and struck by sin-sickness and thin. Yet we may still rise in Christ’s rising, with Him, or leaning on Him. In each of the two stanzas, the line length decreases with our pravity, almost to nothing, but then increases again, with Christ’s victory, back out to fullness. And in each case, the “negative” of the top half – the fall, or affliction, is included, mixed up into the fulfillment as the means of God’s grace, ultimately, to get us there.

Herbert truly was a poetic genius, and this may have been his greatest poem.

I continue to find here and there some discussions and mentions of Herbert and his work, most recently here, in which also there is a link to a thoughtful analysis of one of his poems, the same one I remembered back here.

More George Herbert

I’ve seen his name all over the place recently; for example:

The collect for his feast day in the CoE

A review of a review of this new book

The author of this book discussing the impact of his poetry on one woman’s life

Because of the limited slice of Internetiana I ever see, I bet there’s much more. But I thought it was worth collecting these, here. And don’t forget about this.

The Temple

I recently started a project in which I intend to post all of the poems that make up George Herbert’s great work, The Temple – here.

I’ve made it through the 4th poem, called The Sacrifice. One of his great ones, I think, as we by reading it follow Christ through the events involved with His Passion, with the refrain hitting us again and again – Was ever grief like mine?

The text I am using should be close to the original, as printed over a hundred years ago.

Herbert: Prayer (I)

I found the poem that was lurking in my memory as a possible influence on that featured in my post from Wednesday. It was

Prayer (I)

by George Herbert. The “(I)” means there was another poem called “Prayer (II)” later on in his work The Temple.

Herbert is one of my favorite poets, and has probably influenced me quite a bit without my catching it. I think that’s how a lot of influence works. Lap up a lot of high quality works, and begin to write – the influence will be there, but you may not notice quite how or in what way – unless the imitation is very intentional.