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Mar 10, 2024 · Written in the early 17th century during the metaphysical poetry movement, “Virtue” reflects Herbert’s spiritual depth and literary prowess. By employing various poetic devices such as metaphor, personification, symbolism, and paradox, Herbert crafts a thought-provoking and emotionally resonant poem that invites readers to contemplate the deeper truths of the human experience.
- Summary
- Meaning
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- Literary Devices
- Themes
- Detailed Analysis
- Historical Context
- Similar Poetry
‘Virtue’ by Geroge Herbert describes how the day, rose, and spring, all the beautiful things of nature, are inconstant in comparisonto “a sweet and virtuous soul”. This poem begins with a reference to the “sweet day”. Though it is so cool, calm, and bright, in the eve its beauty fades away. A rose which bids a rash gazer wipe his eye, its root is e...
Herbert’s poem is about the importance of nourishing virtue in a person’s soul. In this poem, he uses several ideas to bring home his point. By using this means, he tries to highlight what is the need of the hour. According to the poetic persona, every beautiful thing of nature is prone to change. Nothing will remain except the virtue that a person...
The poem ‘Virtue’ is highly structured. It has a set rhyme scheme and meter. To begin with, Herbert uses the ABAB rhyme scheme in this poem. For example, in the first stanza, “bright” rhymeswith “to-night” (lines 1 and 3), and “sky” and “die” rhyme together (lines 2 and 4). This scheme is maintained throughout the piece for creating an internal con...
The following list includes the major literary devices used in Herbert’s poem ‘Virtue’. 1. Alliteration: It occurs in the very first line of the poem: “Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright.” This line also contains asyndeton. 2. Metaphor:“The bridal of the earth and sky,” “full of sweet days and roses,” etc. 3. Personification:“The dew shall weep...
Herbert uses the following themes in this poem: virtue, transience vs eternity, and nature. The theme of virtue is portrayed by the last four lines of the poem. These lines point to the fact that if one keeps a virtuous soul, nothing can stop it from attaining immortality. Besides, Herbert makes use of the theme, transience vs eternity, throughout ...
Stanza One
George Herbert’s poem ‘Virtue’ is a poem related to the spirit. It talks about how to nurture the soul in order to gain immortality. To begin with, Herbert first refers to the “Sweet day”. Readers can see that the poet begins each stanza with the word “sweet”. So, he is also accepting that the beautiful things of nature are sweet to look at with worldly eyes. He paints a beautiful picture of a morning (or day) that is cool, calm, and bright. So, it can be a reference to a spring morning. In t...
Stanza Two
In the second stanza, Herbert talks about the “sweet rose” that is the symbol of both beauty and change. To depict its bright red color, he uses a symbol. The phrase “angry hue” depicts its color symbolically. Moreover, the red color of the rose symbolizesbravery. In the following line, the poet says that the color of the rose is very contrasting. It makes a “rash gazer” wipe his eye. This line means that the brightness of the flower blinds the onlooker’s eyes. So, he wipes his eyes to look c...
Stanza Three
The third stanza describes how the spring season is “full of sweet days and roses”. This stanza makes it clear that the overall poem is set on the theme of spring. For example, readers can find references to the cold and calm day, a sweet rose, and the spring. So, Herbert mostly uses the stock images of spring to talk about the importance of virtue. According to him, the spring is full of sweetness. It is like a box (another metaphysical conceit) that is filled with sweets. However, this poem...
The poem ‘Virtue’ was published in the collection of Geroge Herbert’s poems “The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations”. Herbert sent his poetry to his friend Nicholas Ferrar shortly before his death. Ferrar published those poems in the mentioned poetry collection of George Herbert in 1633. All of his poems are on religious themes and conta...
Here is a list of some poems that tap on the similar themes present in George Herbert’s religious poem ‘Virtue’. 1. ‘Sweet Rose of Virtue’ by William Dunbar – This poem describes the changed feelings of a speaker who no longer understands a woman he used to love. Explore more Willing Dunbar poems. 2. ‘The Human Abstract’ by William Blake – It’s one...
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May 21, 2018 · "Virtue" was written by a priest of the Church of England in a rural district of England sometime between 1630 and 1633, nearly a decade before Oliver Cromwell's Puritan Revolution and the beheading of King Charles I. Following in the tradition of "warning" verse, which reminds readers of the transience of the temporal world, however beautiful, and of the possible perils of the world to come ...
Oct 7, 2020 · The day is very cool, sweet, light, and a symbol of the marriage of the earth to the sky; but it is doomed to die as soon as the night approaches. Dewdrops express sorrow and sadness at the death of the day. Just like the fate of the day, the fate of rose is also in its ultimate death.
Virtue Summary V irtue by George Herbert is a religious poem that urges readers to shun earthly pleasures and instead pursue virtue. The poem begins with an invocation to a serene day, which is ...
Devotional poetry is precisely what its name suggests: poetry written and intended to be read as an act and expression of devotion to the Deity, as seen in all of Herbert's work.
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Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright, The bridal of the earth and sky; The dew shall weep thy fall to-night, For thou must die. Sweet rose, whose hue angry and brave Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye; Thy root is ever in its grave, And thou must die. Sweet spring, full of sweet days and…
