Today in Language: George Herbert

George Herbert was born April 3, 1593. He did two things well that I cannot do well and probably will never do in any serious way: minister (as a full-time pastor, that is) and write poetry. Enjoy the first stanza of "The Dawning":

Awake, sad heart, whom sorrow ever drowns;
    Take up thine eyes, which feed on earth;
Unfold thy forehead, gathered into frowns;
    Thy Saviour comes, and with Him mirth:
                                            Awake, awake,
    And with a thankful heart His comforts take.
But thou dost still lament, and pine, and cry,
And feel His death, but not His victory.

Comments

  1. Jeremy - Excellent blog you have here! I just wandered onto your blog from your response on Roger Olson's blog. Usually when I check out new blogs, I say, "oh, that's nice," or "not my cup of tea," and then go on to forget about wandering onto those blogs. But your's really caught my eye. I had to take some time perusing your posts.

    I happen to be reading George Herbert at the moment, so I was happy to see your commemoration of his birthday. I'm in a group that is reading the English metaphysical poets during Lent, and Herbert was the one we looked at last Friday - that's why I'm giving him some special attention this week.

    Keep on blogging - I'll definitely bookmark yours so I can come back again.

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  2. Hi Charles! Thanks for the comment and for dropping by. I have read blogs for a long time but never blogged. But everything just came together recently and I figured out the direction I would go with a blog and so finally started one.

    I am definitely a Herbert fan, though not an expert. The Lent reading group sounds great. I'll have to be going through some of his key poems myself this month.

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