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Herbert's Form

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Extract

There is a certain irony in the fact that the most formal of seventeenth-century Anglican poems have been so much enjoyed by the anti-formalists in religion and art. The appeal of George Herbert's poetry to the opponents of ritual was a justifying triumph for Herbert's conception of form: in poetry as well as religion Herbert tried to work out-a middle way between “slovenliness” and “superstition.” It was by means of form that the material could be used in the service of the spiritual, that the senses could be properly employed for the glorification of God.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 66 , Issue 6 , December 1951 , pp. 1055 - 1072
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1951

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