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Submitted by reina on January 26, 2007
Category: English
Words: 2553 | Pages: 11
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The 17th century was a period in which religious reformation spread to England. Many Catholics converted to Protestantism. One of those is John Donne. He was a priest and was known for addressing God directly in his poems. He has a personal relationship between him and god. Donne carried the metaphysical style in his writings, which were taken up by later poets; the other two under consideration here are George Herbert and Crashaw. Herbert decided when he began writing poetry at Cambridge, to devote his poetic works to God, he had less difficulty in adjusting from court life to religious life than did Donne. Crashaw was another one of these followers. His father was a puritan, but Crashaw opposed his father. He converted to Catholicism and wrote religious poems. Donne, Herbert, and Crashaw used biblical references, which are words, ideas, subjects that are mentioned in a literary work to refer to a certain biblical story or verse (Oxford dictionary) , in their writings as they had a great interest in religion (Norton anthology, p1069-1079).
As we know Herbert is a metaphysical poet so he must have been influenced by the bible. He in his poem love 3 is giving a beautiful image of a meeting between God and a sinner. The sinner tells God that he is ashamed and he doesn’t deserve God’s forgiveness. God responds beautifully, and tells him that he has already bore the blame. This is to refer to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ the lamb which was written repeatedly in the bible. One mention of it is in the gospel of (Peter 1:18-19), when Saint Peter tells us that we were salved not by corruptible things but with the flawless blood of Jesus Christ the lamb. Another mention of the idea of carrying the blame is in (Isaiah 53:4-9), when he foretold the coming and death of Jesus Christ and his carrying of our grieves, sorrows and transgressions (cla.calpoly.edu, par6).
In the last stanza of the same poem, God tells the sinner to sit down...
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