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Lawrence Upton wrote: >I admire donne intensely and herbert... but not because they are >religious;given their circumstances it would seem ridiculous to object to >the religious content My readings of the religious poetry of the Renaissance through the 19th century (its largest and often greatest part), for example Donne, Herbert or Milton, require fastidious attention to their religiousity, and the particular exertions which it requires of their craft. I don't at ALL think that the fineness of these poems is *despite* their devotion, nor quite the opposite; but the Holy Sonnets can fill me with grief for the loss of that ardor, and the obligations under which religious poets labor and their rigorous fulfillment at the very least hazard serious thought and artistic commitment which is lacking in more narcissistic endeavors. Whatever one's personal religious views (as for mine: none), which hardly I think merit flippant dismissal as potent as they are politically militarily etc., it is impossible to read religious poetry accurately with a "sympathetic" disregard for their religious enactments as simply conventional exigency. Andrea %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%