George Herbert’s Poems are more than simple and are not to be dismissed as being unwitty because they are actually quite full of wit. In the poems “The Altar”, “Easter Wings”, “Love III”, “Redemption”, “Jordan I”, “Prayer I”, and “Paradise” By George Herbert the use of wit is debated. In the secondary sources “In Praise of George Herbert” by Spencer Reece and the article ““Let Wits Contest”: George Herbert and the English Sonnet Sequence” George’s Wit in his poems is analyzed and proven to be true that the poems are more than simplistic. The wit that is in Herbert’s poems goes beyond just the words and the rhymes being complex but the shape of two of the poems is important to the wit. The way words are played with is also important to display
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The shape is of wings and the wings are specifically angel wings. Angel wings are important to this poem because they show that the more a person suffers the holier they are and Angels specifically fallen angels have suffered greatly and their fall is permanent were as humans can be redeemed. The lines that suggest this are “Then shall the fall further the flight in me.”() and “For, if I imp my wing on thine, / Affliction shall advance the flight in me” (). The title of the poem is also significant because it is talking about Easter. On Easter, Christ is resurrected and this is significant in the poem because it shows that with death is redemption and rebirth of human sins. In Reinstra’s article “Easter Wings” is “For Herbert, the liturgical introduces precisely the needed escape out of the ego-assertion trap” (34). Reinstra compares Herbert to Spenser’s Amoretti’s use of liturgical, which “do[es]not change the game”(34). By stating this it shows the Herbert’s methods in the poem “Easter Wing” are not boring or old, but they actually necessary to make the poem great, which it then can be said that the poem does is in fact have a contemporary wit. Reece writes of Herbert in general, “He 's not the prima donna John Donne was, as W. H. Auden wryly pointed out. Donne with all his floods and trumpets, his infinities of souls and "Death be not proud," is the ultimate contrast” (32). This shows that once again, Herbert can stand up against Donne and even be better through his differences and this proves Herbert’s wit. The poem “Paradise” also has some shape play, but the form of wit is the word
The shape is of wings and the wings are specifically angel wings. Angel wings are important to this poem because they show that the more a person suffers the holier they are and Angels specifically fallen angels have suffered greatly and their fall is permanent were as humans can be redeemed. The lines that suggest this are “Then shall the fall further the flight in me.”() and “For, if I imp my wing on thine, / Affliction shall advance the flight in me” (). The title of the poem is also significant because it is talking about Easter. On Easter, Christ is resurrected and this is significant in the poem because it shows that with death is redemption and rebirth of human sins. In Reinstra’s article “Easter Wings” is “For Herbert, the liturgical introduces precisely the needed escape out of the ego-assertion trap” (34). Reinstra compares Herbert to Spenser’s Amoretti’s use of liturgical, which “do[es]not change the game”(34). By stating this it shows the Herbert’s methods in the poem “Easter Wing” are not boring or old, but they actually necessary to make the poem great, which it then can be said that the poem does is in fact have a contemporary wit. Reece writes of Herbert in general, “He 's not the prima donna John Donne was, as W. H. Auden wryly pointed out. Donne with all his floods and trumpets, his infinities of souls and "Death be not proud," is the ultimate contrast” (32). This shows that once again, Herbert can stand up against Donne and even be better through his differences and this proves Herbert’s wit. The poem “Paradise” also has some shape play, but the form of wit is the word