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Music at Midnight: The Life and Poetry of George Herbert
Music at Midnight The Life and Poetry of George Herbert Author:John Drury George Herbert (1593-1633) was one of the great English poets and possibly the greatest religious poet in the language. He still inspires intense admiration, and his verse is available in many editions and countless anthologies. Herbert?s poems naturally inspire curiosity about his life, and the first biography of Herbert (by Isaak Walton) appea... more »red as early as 1670. Yet no biography of Herbert is currently in print. John Drury?s “Music at Midnight? will take its place as the best biography of Herbert ever written, and one of the best biographies of a Renaissance poet. As a churchman himself, Drury does full justice to the spiritual dimension of Herbert?s work. In accessible and elegant prose, Drury tells the story of Herbert?s life, times, and literary achievement. None of Herbert?s English poems were published in his lifetime, and it is impossible to know what he wrote when. Drury finesses this problem by placing his readings of the poems into his narrative at biographically credible moments. It is an effective strategy that makes a truly satisfying book for the reader; when we read the poetry in a plausible biographical context it means even more than it did before.« less