Religious Poetry

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Considered the finest of the religious metaphysicals was an Anglican poet who struggled for years between choosing a religious life or one that was both academic and public. His collection of religious poems, The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations (1633), shows him both Expressing his own sense of the conflict between the claims established on man by worldly wit and sophistication and those of true Christian devotion and Exploring the significance of the main symbols and beliefs of Protestant Christianity

Like Donne, Herbert writes poetry which grabs the reader's attention by its opening statement of theme, but unlike Donne, he maintains interest and excitement by the unexpected ways he transforms traditional Christian material.

Herbert's poetry is marked by alternating modes of shock and repose: conflict is balanced by calm trust, disturbed speculation by simple faith, ingenious language by simplicity of statement. The ultimate struggle or conflict in Herbert's poetry is between the world and complete surrender to God.

Herbert's poetry differs from Donne's in four essential ways: His work combines religious autobiography with presentation of great Christian themes. He uses musical devices and analogies to a greater extent than any other metaphysical poet. He does not focus on the struggle for a "right" faith or a true religion, because he professes to have found it. He produced shaped or pattern poetry.

perhaps best known for his technique of exploring analogies between emblematic objects--such as the human body or parts of the church building and its furniture--and religious truths. He does so primarily through the use of shaped verse.

Shaped verse is a poem so constructed that its printed form suggests its subject matter or its theme.

(1612/ )

A Catholic convert, Crashaw very nearly lived the last part of his life exiled among the religious metaphysicals. Although like Herbert he is considered a religious metaphysical, Crashaw's poetry reveals a sensibility and a technique markedly different from that of either Herbert or Donne. His collection of poetry entitled Steps to the Temple (1646) clearly refers to Herbert's earlier work, which he is said to have admired. Crashaw's poetry, however, is far removed stylistically from Herbert's.

poetry is characterized by a deliberate search for startling and paradoxical expression meant specifically to shock and excite the reader. He achieves this goal in three related ways: he presses all of the senses into the service of the expression of religious passion, he uses erotic and other images of physical appetite and desire in a paradoxical way, and he utilizes extravagant paradox involving the secular and the divine, tears and ecstasy, the sensuous and the spiritual.