A Study Of Herbert’s Religious Poetry

As one of the most important religious poets in English literature, George Herbert deeply explored the spiritual state of Christians in the 17th century and gave serious thought to the real meaning of Christianity to Christians in the era when there were great changes in the development of society. He was skillful in creating poems with profound meanings and had a great influence on the creation of poetry and even literature in the following ages.Western critics have studied Herbert and his poems for nearly 400 years with a lot of research produces in almost every aspect of poetry study. But the research that studies the relationship between the religious characteristics of Herbert’s poems and his concept of virtue can seldom be seen. Therefore, by correlating close reading of his poetic works and the research concerning the historical context, this dissertation attempts to explore Herbert’s special concept of virtue and religious thoughts and tries to find his religious values through analyzing the religious characteristics of his poems.There are six parts in this dissertation.The Introduction points out Herbert’s unique position in the history of British poetry with Coleridge’s remark "a poet sui generis", and gives a brief introduction to the history of western Herbert critics.Chapter One "Religious Feelings and ’Providence’ in The Temple" first analyzes the revealed complicated religious feelings in The Temple. By contrasting God’s different ways of dealing with plants and human beings, this dissertation points out that Herbert believes "the humble self-restriction" is the spiritual state that Christians should have, only in this way, Christians can recognize their sins and get the chances of winning God’s salvation. Then this chapter analyzes the cosmic order ’providence’ hidden in The Temple, and finds that Herbert accepts the traditional Pythagoras-Ptolemy cosmology and believes harmony and order are the existing state of the whole universe. Human being, as the "secretary" of God, should find, recognize and praise this harmony.Chapter Two "The Metaphysical Interpretation of the Relationships between God and Man" first explores the lover-to-lover relationship, lord-to-servant relationship and father-to-son relationship between God and human beings. The last two of these relationships are traditional Christian concepts, but with Herbert’s own understanding. Herbert applies the subjects and forms of profane love poems into the creation of religious poems and thinks that it is God who pursues human beings ’spirits and tries His best to save them. Therefore the lover-to-lover relationship between God and human beings in Herbert’s poetry is greatly different from that in the middle ages religious poetry. The Holy Communion derived from the body of God’s son Jesus Christ, the silk twist led down to "me" from God and the harmonious tune of heaven music are God’s ways to save human beings’ spirit. The "sweetness" of the Holy Communion is the interpretation of the spiritual state saved by God, thus "sweet" becomes a vivid description of the relationship between God and human beings in The Temple. In addition, the Holy Communion makes The Temple an organic whole as an important symbol.Chapter Three "Individual’s Salvation and Religious Virtue" points out that virtue is an ideology which influences human beings’existence and behavior. In the Christian background of western culture, the development of virtue has mingled with Christian ethics in certain historical contexts, thus, Herbert believed that God’s grace provided the possibility for the Christian individuals to harvest salvation. Christian individuals will eventually get spiritual salvation when they can correctly deal with the relationship among doctrines, life, others and the self, and live a virtuous life following the example of God. So Herbert focuses on Christian individuals’restriction of their behavior in social life, only in this way, can Christians realize their final happiness. Therefore, self-restriction features Herbert’s concept of virtue.Chapter Four "Religious Ethics and Social Change" first analyzes Herbert’s famous poem "Virtue" from the subject of virtue and points out that virtue is Herbert’s unique understanding of Christian ethics, which features Christian individuals’ behavior in Christian community. Through analysis, Herbert’s ideal country parson is found to have the common features of "gentlemen" in the 17th century and serves as a model for the Christian individuals to follow in the community. Christians’regulation of their behavior makes the salvation of their spirits possible. And at the same time, Herbert focuses on parson’s role of managing society and he seems to hope to renew the social order of the Tudor Period. He emphasizes the role of parson, and even the role of church in the management of society, which will eventually have influences on the development of society.The last part concludes that Herbert expressed special opinions on virtue, faith and the reform of individuals in his poetry. He tried to sustain traditional Christian beliefs and virtues by poetry. In this way, ethics of virtue was inherited and developed and religious poetics was developed and surpassed in the 17th century. Therefore, The Temple is an excellent collection of Christian lyrical poems.