Herbert, George (1593–1633)

English poet. His volume of religious poems, The Temple, appeared in 1633, shortly before his death. His intense though quiet poems embody his religious struggles (‘The Temper’, ‘The Collar’) or poignantly contrast mortality and eternal truth (‘Vertue’, ‘Life’) in a deceptively simple language.

Herbert was born at Montgomery Castle in Wales, and educated at Cambridge University, where he was made a fellow in 1615. In 1619 he caught the attention of James I and seemed bent on a secular career; for a time he followed the court, making many distinguished friends, but the death of the king and of his patrons ended his chances of court preferment. He joined the church in 1626, was ordained priest in 1630, and became vicar of Bemerton, Wiltshire, where he wrote his religious poems. His chief prose work, A Priest to the Temple, was first printed in his Remains (1652), and he also made a collection of proverbs, Jacula Prudentium (1651).

The high regard in which he was held in the 17th century waned early in the 18th, and for a century or more his poetry was considered uncouth. The Romantic English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge did much to restore it to favour. It is noted for its colloquial phraseology, pliable verse forms, and quiet music; its apparent simplicity is its greatest strength.