I first encountered the poems of George Herbert (1593-1633) in England as part of the A-level curriculum at Lancing College in 1971. His poetry had a quality that appealed to me in an odd way. He seemed to have an almost personal connection to the Divine, a state of being that resonated with my teenage self at the time. Back then, I was like a spinning compass, endlessly twirling on a pinhead, trying to orient myself. I had no idea what I was doing or where I was going other than to get into a university. After that? I had no idea. Although George Herbert was unable to supply me with a direction, he at least was aware of the need for one, and the poetry he wrote was soft, gentle, and profound. I thought this no small accomplishment given that the England of his time was politically and religiously charged, turbulent, and dangerous.

In the seventeenth century, what an individual believed had consequences in his or her day-to-day social and business interactions. To believe wrongly was perilous when three faiths—Protestantism, Catholicism, and the Church of England—vied against each other for control. Because of this turmoil, America became synonymous with freedom to all who suffered religious persecution, which included the Pilgrims, the Puritans, and many other sects. Only in America could one believe whatever one wished.

For someone with an education like George Herbert, who had gone to Trinity College Cambridge in 1609, entering politics and currying aristocratic and royal favor were the best methods to obtain wealth, position, and influence, but such aspirations also carried great risks. Even a man as brilliant as Francis Bacon, one of Herbert’s friends and contemporaries, was brought down by charges of corruption and political backstabbing.

George Herbert eventually chose the priesthood over politics but not without a struggle. He may have been a scholar and, eventually, the Public Orator of Cambridge University, but he was always worried about money and not for any extravagant purpose—merely enough to live. He also worried about his health, which was questionable and led to his early death at the age of thirty-nine. To Herbert, poetry was a secondary calling. His first was politics, where he achieved some measure of success, but as members of his family and those who supported him either died or were shunted to the side in the shifting political landscape of the times, his star waned. In 1624, he took holy orders, but the living he acquired was insufficient for him to even own a home. He survived on the charity of friends until he was finally ordained and settled in the small parish of Bemerton where he lived out the rest of his days. Only on his death bed did he send out a manuscript of his poetry for possible publication to a friend—leaving it solely up to him to either publish or destroy his work. His friend chose to publish, and it is very well he did.

Herbert’s poetry grew enormously popular, and he is now considered Britain’s finest devotional lyricist.

Consider his poem, The Prayer (1). It was the first of his by that title, hence the 1. Note: It has no main verb, implying that it is unfinished and thus never-ending—just like prayer. I have added footnotes to clarify some of the metaphors used:

Prayer the church’s banquet¹, angel’s age²,
God’s breath in man returning to his birth³,
The soul in paraphrase⁴, heart in pilgrimage⁵,
The Christian plummet sounding heav’n and earth⁶
Engine against th’ Almighty⁷, sinner’s tow’r⁸,
Reversed thunder⁹, Christ-side-piercing spear¹⁰,
The six-days world transposing in an hour¹¹,
A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear;
Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,
Exalted manna¹², gladness of the best,
Heaven in ordinary, man well drest¹³,
The milky way, the bird of Paradise,
Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul’s blood,
The land of spices¹⁴; something understood¹⁵.

1. The congregational aspect of prayer in church.
2. Angels are eternal and so are prayers.
3. God breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life and so God’s breath is returned to Him.
4. In prayer, we attempt to tell God what’s going on.
5. Refers to the The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer and the Christian pilgrimage
6. A “plummet” was a lead weight used by sailors to measure the depth when entering harbor to test the waters.
7. “Engine” here refers to siege engines used to break open a castle’s walls like when we bemoan our fate and complain to God about our burdens.
8. Our refuge in times of need.
9. Thunder illustrates God’s power coming down from heaven. In reverse, we try and get his attention.
10. The spear pierced Christ near the heart. Prayer comes from the heart and to the heart of God.
11. God created heaven and Earth in six days. In music, one transposes a tune to a different key, implying that one hour of prayer can change the world and us like God did in six days.
12. In the wilderness, God fed his people “manna from heaven”. Prayer is food for the soul.
13. Prayer bridges the gap between God and man. Man is better dressed, and God is ordinary, allowing communication to take place.
14. The place where dreams come true. We communicate to God our dreams in the form of prayers.
15. A prayer is an understanding not only of our place in the world but an insight into ourselves and our secret thoughts. It is also something understood between God and oneself.

The poem is like a zip file that unpacks to say much more than its few words, in keeping with the style of the time. The poem and its message are to me a form of relief like balm on an inflamed and tumultuous world. It is no wonder I was drawn to him given the perilous future I felt awaited me. Given today’s perils, perhaps George Herbert has more relevance than ever. The difficulty and the sorrow are that few know him and the comfort his thoughts can bring.