If the truest task of the Christian artist is to cloak the verities of Scripture and the experience of the church in the beauty and delight of a sanctified imagination, then indeed Herbert is up there with Bach. But if he were merely a great devotional poet, he would not have survived: his musical ear and command of the language is capable of impressing even the most hardhearted skeptic. No poet makes me more grateful for the blessing of faith than him.

Herbert's poetry is the equivalent of Bach's cantatas: an endlessly exploratory yet infinitely orthodox wellspring of sacred feeling that richly illuminates the wonders of the church year. Here's a beautiful performance by baritone Carl Frank.

Most or all of the poetry in this volume is religious (Christian) and some of his works have been made into hymns, including this, one of my favorites, a love-ballad, later set to a haunting melody by British composer Vaughan Williams (1872-1958). His life overlapped with Shakespeare's but their work could not be more different. Formally, Herbert was very creative inventing not only new forms and rhyme schemes but sometimes 'shaped poems' such as 'Easter Wings,' in which the text is printed vertically rather than left-to-right and forms the shape of a butterfly. George Herbert (1593-1633) wrote unique poetry, often short and seemingly simple but hiding layers of complexity and symbolism. 'Renaissance Literature and the Arts,' where I encountered this poet, was one of my favorite and most memorable college courses.

George herbert poems list