“Herbert is a sincerely simple poet – perhaps he should have confined himself to writing hymns instead of tying himself into knots in an attempt to claim profound poetic discourse with his God” Discuss. George Herbert did not attempt to claim poetic discourse with his God. He claims poetic discourse with his God. Of course many of his poems were meant to be sung as hymns for Herbert was also a musician. It is unfair to …showed first 75 words of 641 total…

…showed last 75 words of 641 total…are closest to the people of his time, and even our own recognisable everyday experience – the metaphor of the legal transaction. Joan Bennett in “Five Metaphysical Poets” likens the plain matter-of-fact of Herbert’s narration to “the tone of man exchanging views in the market place”. Eliot uses this poem to illustrate the observation that “Herbert is a master of the simple every day word in the right place, and charges it with concentrated mea