Publisher:
Peter Lang AG, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, Bern
This book provides a cognitive analysis of the poetry of George Herbert (1593- 1633). From Herbert's own thinking, recorded in his prose treatises, can be deduced that his poems should serve a specific function: teaching self- to his readers....
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This book provides a cognitive analysis of the poetry of George Herbert (1593- 1633). From Herbert's own thinking, recorded in his prose treatises, can be deduced that his poems should serve a specific function: teaching self- to his readers. Self-knowledge is a necessary skill, to be applied in one's strife for 'temperance': the regulation of body, house, church, mind, and community. To Herbert, the meaning of his poems is subservient to this function: poetry should aid his readers to temper their lives
Cover; Contents vii; Introduction ix; 1. Reading Herbert 1; 1.1 Introduction 1; 1.2 The Temple 2; 1.3 Characteristics of the reception of The Temple 5; 1.4 'Spelling' life: the dynamics of Christian experience 14; 1.5 Herbert's language 19; 1.6 Reading The Temple: Connecting the body to the Word 23; 1.7 'Hee that hath charge of soules transports them not in bundles' 25; 2. Framing 27; 2.1 Introduction 27; 2.2 Passions and humours 29; 2.3 Corporeal order: Sobrietie 31; 2.4 Temperance and self-knowledge 33; 2.5 The parson imposing order 38; 2.6 Framing the mind: rhetoric and poetry 41
2.7 'When God is made master of a family, he orders the disorderly' 443. Explaining 47; 3.1 Introduction 47; 3.2 Cognition 49; 3.3 Mimetic culture 53; 3.4 Mythic culture 55; 3.5 Theoretic culture 59; 3.6 Meta-cognition 61; 3.7 Mimetic meta-cognitive tool use 64; 3.8 Poetry as cognition 67; 3.9 'In doing we learne' 73; 4. Re-membering 75; 4.1 Towards a cognitive Herbertian poetics 75; 4.2 Herbert's culture and art 77; 4.3 Herbert as craftsman 80; 4.4 Reading Herbert 83; 4.5 Temperance 87; 4.6 'Helpe thy selfe, and God will helpe thee' 92; 5. Synthesising 95; 5.1 Introduction 95
5.2 Studying The Temple: understanding and explaining 965.3 The structure of Herbert-criticism 102; 5.4 Acknowledging theory and myth 107; 5.5 The scientific revolution 112; 5.6 Unity of knowledge 115; 5.7 'All things have their place, knew wee how to place them' 119; Conclusion 121; Bibliography 125; Index 141
