George Herbert's Chirstian Interpreation of Plato

Herbie Adopts Augustine with Gusto

Perhaps due to his primarily ecclesiastical lifestyle or to the quite intensity of his works in comparison to his contemporaries, George Herbert receives notably less attention as a metaphysical poet than others of the school such as Andrew Marvell or Herbert's famed patron, John Donne. The metaphysical poets came into prominence in the seventeenth century as a loosely defined group of artists who concerned themselves with the recondite experiences of human nature, such as love, sensual pleasure, and in Herbert's case especially, man's relationship to God. Herbert reserved his poems' subject almost entirely to the holy and within his work can been seen a deep understanding of the history of religious philosophy. Notably so is Herbert's debt to Saint Augustine of Hippo, whose late fourth century work, Confessions, had been at the time (and continually persists to be) a heavy influence on Christian, especially Catholic, doctrine. Augustine...