Reading for Evidence of Faith in Herbert’s Poems

Abstract

Abstract In this essay George Herbert’s representations of inward life are seen in the context of (i) the recommendations for self-examination made by theologians of his own time, and (ii) critical terms derived from modern psychological accounts of ‘Theory of Mind’. Lisa Zunshine’s emphasis on ‘embodied transparency’ and ‘metapresentation’ helps capture the way that Herbert exposes his readers to difficult but salutary self-analysis. This is not just a matter of trapping the unwary: the poems are designed for re-reading, re-voicing, and re-thinking, for considering especially the timing of discoveries about one’s own faith, and the origins of the voices that console and cajole the speakers of the poems. In Herbert’s hands, lyric form and the practice of self-scrutiny both respond dynamically to the pressures that resulted from the religious and cultural environment.