Donne and Herbert

[VirginiaHuguenot]

Two of my favorite poets are Anglicans with anniversaries this week.

John Donne was born in 1572 and died on March 31, 1631. See here for more about his life and works.

George Herbert was born on April 3, 1593 and died on February 27, 1633. For more on his life and works see here.

 

[Mayflower]

Dear Andrew,

I check there books, but only found poets of them. Are there not sermons from John Donne & George Herbert ? If so, what are the titles ?

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

Both are known today primarily for their poems. Donne also wrote prose meditations. Both did of course write sermons too. I don't know where off hand to find Herbert's sermons, but you can find *some* sermons by Donne here.

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

Originally posted by VirginiaHuguenot
Two of my favorite poets are Anglicans with anniversaries this week.

John Donne was born in 1572 and died on March 31, 1631. See here for more about his life and works.

George Herbert was born on April 3, 1593 and died on February 27, 1633. For more on his life and works see here.

Also, Andrew Marvell's birthday is March 31 (1621).

 

[crhoades]

To Herbert and Donne. I have both of their collected works and profit from them. Also picked up the poetical works of Cowper the other day for cheap. Does anyone know if there are any "Christian" poets out there today?

 

[MICWARFIELD]

I havent read Herbert, but I love Donne. I've been reading his devotions here http://www.ccel.org/ccel/donne/devotions.titlepage.html

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

George Herbert

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

Matthew Henry quoted this excerpt from George Herbert's The Church Militant (1633) in a 1713 sermon called A Memorial of the Fire of the Lord:

Religion stands on tip-toe in our land,
Readie to passe to the American strand.
When height of malice, and prodigious lusts,
Impudent sinning, witchcrafts, and distrusts
(The marks of future bane) shall fill our cup
Unto the brimme, and make our measure up;
When Sein shall swallow Tiber, and the Thames
By letting in them both pollutes her streams:
When Italie of us shall have her will,
And all her calendar of sinnes fulfill;
Whereby one may foretell, what sinnes next yeare
Shall both in France and England domineer:
Then shall Religion to America flee:
They have their times of Gospel, ev´n as we.

 

[Philip A]

I've been reading Herbert over the last few weeks, and thoroughly enjoying his writings. After reading last night, I thought to myself "I ought to post a bit about it on the PB". Then I thought "I wonder if there's a thread on Herbert already" and finally "I bet Andrew has one."


So anyhoo, I read this last night:

The Sinner

LORD, how I am all ague, when I seek
What I have treasur’d in my memorie!
Since, if my soul make even with the week,
Each seventh note by right is due to thee.
I finde there quarries of pil’d vanities,
But shreds of holinesse, that dare not venture
To shew their face, since crosse to thy decrees :
There the circumference earth is, heav’n the centre.
In so much dregs the quintessence is small :
The spirit and good extract of my heart
Comes to about the many hundredth part.
Yet, Lord, restore thine image, heare my call :
And though my hard heart scarce to thee can grone,
Remember that thou once didst write in stone.

Now that's poetry!

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

Originally posted by Philip A
I've been reading Herbert over the last few weeks, and thoroughly enjoying his writings. After reading last night, I thought to myself "I ought to post a bit about it on the PB". Then I thought "I wonder if there's a thread on Herbert already" and finally "I bet Andrew has one."

So anyhoo, I read this last night:

The Sinner

LORD, how I am all ague, when I seek
What I have treasur’d in my memorie!
Since, if my soul make even with the week,
Each seventh note by right is due to thee.
I finde there quarries of pil’d vanities,
But shreds of holinesse, that dare not venture
To shew their face, since crosse to thy decrees :
There the circumference earth is, heav’n the centre.
In so much dregs the quintessence is small :
The spirit and good extract of my heart
Comes to about the many hundredth part.
Yet, Lord, restore thine image, heare my call :
And though my hard heart scarce to thee can grone,
Remember that thou once didst write in stone.

Now that's poetry!

 

[rmdmphilosopher]

John Donne is my favorite poet, and Herbert is my favorite sister's favorite poet, so between us we have quoted enough of each at each other to publish our own anthology...

Anyway, I knew Donne had written Meditations (in fact I wrote a paper once about how some of his Meditations Upon Emergent Occasions seem to follow the form of the Ignatian meditation), but I could never find anything else in prose by him (except a rather odd item, Biathanatos by name, that was a defense of suicide!)... Chris says he has the complete works of Donne: are these actually in print still? And more importantly, for my purposes, are they within the price range of a pauper?

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

George Herbert died on February 27, 1633.

 

[bookslover]

There is a new biography of John Donne: John Donne: The Reformed Soul by John Stubbs (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2006). I've bought it but haven't started it yet.

Hardback; 26 pages of introductory matter; 565 pages of text, notes, and indexes. Stubbs was born in 1977 and studied English at Oxford and Renaissance literature at Cambridge, where he completed a doctorate in 2005, according to the jacket blurb.