This essay argues that the influence of Johannine theology on George Herbert’s poetry has been neglected in Herbert criticism, partly because Herbert’s critics tend to assume that Pauline theology is the proper theological frame for much of Herbert’s religious verse. I argue that several of Herbert’s well-regarded poems conform to a distinctly Johannine poetics that emphasizes the divinity of Christ, realized eschatology, and, in terms of style, a rhetoric of productive misunderstanding and irony.
Title
Johannine Poetics in George Herbert’s Devotional Lyrics