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Critics are divided over the specific religious position of Donne’s and
Herbert’s poetry. Both poets were ministers in the Church of England;
however, there was an internal divide within the church between those
who favored a liturgical, ritualistic High Church model and those who
supported the Puritan Calvinist emphasis on Scripture and simplicity. 1
In the case of Donne, this debate is complicated by his personal history
growing up Catholic and converting to Protestantism. For Herbert, critics
engage in a similar debate, some calling on his use of shape poetry and
images, like altars and windows, to place him under Catholic influence,
whereas others appeal to his simple style and heavy reliance on Scripture
to argue his poetry reflects Calvinism. 2
In the midst of this debate, there are some critics who see a third way
between the two competing religious factions. For one, Anne-Marie Miller
Blaise argues that Herbert defines his “theology of beauty” from his study
at Cambridge of pre-Reformation sources (2). These pre-Reformation
sources, the Church Fathers and Augustine, allow Herbert to escape
the debate of his day, since the Church Father’s believed in religious
emblems and icons, while Augustine also encouraged poetic language
if based on simplicity and the Bible (2, 8). Taking a slightly different
approach, Frances Cruickshank argues Donne and Herbert “both make
the argument, explicitly and demonstrably, that poetry is a special and
privileged mode of religious discourse, a productive way of affronting
material existence and turning it to spiritual and literary account” (10).
Keery | 117