Rick Barot: The First Herbert (January 2007)

Through close attention to the “ingenious formal strategies” in poems by George Herbert, Rick Barot argues both the importance and modernity of this early 17th century Metaphysical poet, showing how Herbert navigates the dialectic between faith and doubt through “intricate craft.”  Barot reflects on how this dialectic runs “in the bloodstream” of poetry now, and looks at the ways in which Herbert’s lineage is apparent in contemporary poets from Louise Glück to Paul Tillick to Olena Kalytiak Davis.