Analysis of On Mr. G. Herbert's Book, Entitled the Temple of Sacred Poe

Richard Crashaw 1612 (London) – 1649 (Loreto, Marche)



Know you fair, on what you look;
   Divinest love lies in this book,
   Expecting fire from your eyes,
   To kindle this his sacrifice.
   When your hands untie these strings,
   Think you'have an angel by th' wings.
   One that gladly will be nigh,
   To wait upon each morning sigh.
   To flutter in the balmy air
  Of your well-perfumed prayer.
  These white plumes of his he'll lend you,
  Which every day to heaven will send you,
  To take acquaintance of the sphere,
  And all the smooth-fac'd kindred there.
      And though Herbert's name do owe
      These devotions, fairest, know
      That while I lay them on the shrine
      Of your white hand, they are mine.Credits and CopyrightTogether with the editors, the Department ofEnglish (University of Toronto), and the University of Toronto Press,the following individuals share copyright for the work that wentinto this edition:Screen Design (Electronic Edition): Sian Meikle (University ofToronto Library)Scanning: Sharine Leung (Centre for Computing in the Humanities)


Scheme AABCDDEEFFGGHFIIJK
Poetic Form
Metre 1111111 111011 01010111 1101110 1110111 1111101111 1110111 11011101 11000101 111011 11111111 11001110111 11010101 01011101 0110111 11101 11111101 11111110110100001010100101000010010101100010011010111110101001011001001101011101010000100
Closest metre Iambic heptameter
Characters 1,022
Words 160
Sentences 7
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 18
Lines Amount 18
Letters per line (avg) 43
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 780
Words per stanza (avg) 155
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

49 sec read
79

Richard Crashaw

Richard Crashaw, was an English poet, styled "the divine," and known as one of the central figures associated with the Metaphysical poets in 17th Century English literature. The son of a prominent Puritan minister, Crashaw was educated at Charterhouse School and Pembroke College, Cambridge. After taking a degree, Crashaw began to publish religious poetry and to teach at Cambridge. During the English Civil War he was ejected from his college position and went into exile in Italy. While in exile he converted from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism. Crashaw's poetry is firmly within the Metaphysical tradition. Though his oeuvre is considered of uneven quality and among the weakest examples of the genre, his work is said to be marked by a focus toward "love with the smaller graces of life and the profounder truths of religion, while he seems forever preoccupied with the secret architecture of things." more…

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