George Herbert and Henry Vaughan

by George Herbert, Henry Vaughan

This volume presents the work of two poets linked by the tribute of creative imitation gratefully paid by Vaughan to Herbert. Read side by side, as this one volume collection makes possible, the artists' verse fully reveal their individual powers, even as the complex nature of Vaughan's use
of Herbert's imaginative example is thrown into greater relief. The book contains the complete English poetry of Herbert, his prose treatise, The Country Parson , the complete text of Vaughan's Silex Scintillans , including all material in both the 1650 and 1655 editions, plus a selection from
Vaughan's early secular poetry. Louis Martz's introduction and commentary help bring the religious controversies of the age into focus, and the text also features chronologies of the lives of the two men, and suggestions for further readings.

Genres: Poetry, British Literature

608 pages, Hardcover

First published June 5, 1986

About the author

George Herbert (1593-1633) was a Welsh-born English poet and orator. Herbert's poetry is associated with the writings of the metaphysical poets, and he is recognized as "a pivotal figure: enormously popular, deeply and broadly influential, and arguably the most skillful and important British devotional lyricist."

Born into an artistic and wealthy family, Herbert received a good education that led to his admission in 1609 as a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, Herbert excelled in languages, rhetoric and music. He went to university with the intention of becoming a priest, but when eventually he became the University's Public Orator he attracted the attention of King James I and may well have seen himself as a future Secretary of State. In 1624 and briefly in 1625 he served in Parliament. Never a healthy man, he died of consumption at the early age of 39.