George Herbert was one of the most religous poets of all time. Herbert has many poems that concern god, love, sin, and heaven. Born in Wales in the 1500's he was one of five sons. He was very smart and written many of his poems in Latin and earned a Bachelors degree. Due to his popularity he had been known to the locals and friends as "Holy Mr. Herbert". However, he was ill fated due to one to many drinks one night and died of consumption. One of my favorite poems written by Herbert is Love bade me welcome. After, reading it I come to realize that it was about a person that love fell into his or her arms. Yet they found love so easily it was taken advantage of, "Love bade me welcome, yet my sould drew back, Guilty of dust and sin". The second stanza is where the person is questioning if love had found the right person. It is then that I realize the "love" that Herbert is writing about is god. God is the true love that will find anyone and everyone. He or she sits down in the end and takes the love of god in the end and ends the poem perfectly with the words, "You must sit down , says love, and taste my meat. So I did sit and eat".
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I find it very interesting that such a religious man would have written poems that almost seemed to encourage the sin of premarital sex as with The Flea. He wrote much of his poetry before he became a priest, so I guess that could make since.
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