Though Ken Wolman in his snap was of course alluding to Herbert's "Love," I
thought the passage from "Easter" more relevant to the discussion which
subsequently developed. Herbert, like Donne, shows that one need not be a
co-religionist to be impressed by good devotional poetry. The magical charm
of the Herbert poem is as obvious as it is impossible to analyze, but to
understand the technical and generic profundity and brilliance of these lines,
it's necessary to remember that they're one of the innumberable natural
children of Catullus 5.
This isn't the place to go into my own religious beliefs (which I couldn't
possibly explain in less than two hours of exegesis, and only that assumimg
you had read some dozen books of my designation first, and no there's no
reason on earth you should bother,) but I must admit being an Anglican gives
one access to a great deal of beautiful language.
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