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George Herbert was a country minister and a protégé of the great metaphysical poet John Donne. In <i>From The Temple</i>, Herbert combines these two aspects of his training in one of the greatest cycles of religious poetry ever written. The soloist reads us a selection from this work. (Summary by Caeristhiona)

George Herbert (April 3, 1593 – March 1, 1633) was a Welsh poet, orator and a priest. Throughout his life he wrote religious poems characterized by a precision of language, a metrical versatility, and an ingenious use of imagery or conceits that was favored by the metaphysical school of poets. He is best remembered as a writer of poems and hymns such as "Come, My Way, My Truth, My Life" and "The King of Love My Shepherd Is." (Summary from Wikipedia)

LibriVox volunteers bring you 11 different recordings of <em>The Pulley</em> by George Herbert. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of June 15th, 2008.

4Secret Battle

By A. P. Herbert

Like many soldiers at the beginning of their military careers, Harry Penrose has romantic ideas of climbing the ranks and attaining hero status. However, while stationed at Gallipoli, the realities of war begin to take their toll on Penrose, not only physically, but also mentally where the war has become a 'battle of the mind.' This is his story as related by a fellow soldier, as well as the story of the campaign at Gallipoli which is vividly portrayed from the author's own personal experiences.<br><br>During his tenure as an officer, Penrose slowly asserts himself; the war takes a toll on his personality, but he begins to live up to his early dreams of heroism. However, his creeping self-doubt grows by degrees; following Gallipoli, he is reassigned from his post as scouting officer once on the Somme, knowing he cannot face another night patrol, and earns the wrath of his commanding officer - an irascible Regular colonel - over a trivial incident. The colonel piles difficult, risky work on him - remarking to the narrator that "Master Penrose can go on with [leading ration parties] until he learns to do them properly" - and Penrose submits, working doggedly to try and keep from cracking. After a long period of this treatment, by the winter of 1916, Penrose's spirit is worn down. What follows his downward spiral may surprise and even shock today's readers, but was common and controversial at the time. (Introduction adapted from Wikipedia with contributions from the narrator and the proof listener.)

George Herbert was an English poet, orator, and priest. In <i>The Country Parson</i> he describes the roles of the priest and offers practice advice to English clergymen about how to fulfill their duties. - Summary by Karen Clausen-Brown

This little square book, the colour of meadow forget-me-nots, is so modest and simple that it may very easily be passed over in a period which has little sympathy with tenderness of feeling and simplicity of expression. The verses, of which this small volume is full, resemble the stornelli and rispetti of Italian songs rather than any kind of verse which has preceded them in English literature, unless it be the earliest and briefest songs of Robert Lytton, with which they have a certain kindred, both in their measure and in their themes. Auberon Herbert is known to the world as a daring and original thinker, a sociologist who lives three centuries before his time, a fearless preacher of new liberties and ideal creeds; in this tiny azure booklet he is also a poet, or, as he would rather himself say, a singer. The verse springs from the depths of his heart, and calls to those who, like himself, have loved and suffered and found nothing endure except the consolations of natural beauty. (Ouida, 1900) - Summary by Arthur Krolman

73 Science Fiction Stories by Frank Herbert

By Frank Herbert

As the title indicates, here are three SF stories by Frank Herbert, Missing LInk, originaly purlished in Astounding SF, 1959; Operation Haystack, also published in Astounding SF 1959; and Old Rambling House, published in Galaxy SF 1958. - Summary by Phil chenevert

8Silent Rifleman: A Tale of the Texan Prairies

By Henry William Herbert

"Two, four, six, eight," he muttered to himself at intervals. "Yes, there are eight of them." Again he laid his ear to the ground and listened. "Yes, there are eight of them, sure enough," he again muttered; and then, after a pause, he added: "But two of them are mules, I think; and they are coming right down hitherward." Then he looked to his rifle lock, and cocked his piece. "Unless they turn aside when they reach the timber, they will be on me in five minutes; and if they know the forest, they will not turn, that's certain; for here's the only place where you can find hard bottom to ride in and out of the old Bravo, for ten miles up and down." He paused from his soliloquy, listened again, and then a smile crept across his intelligent face.<br /><br />A tale from the 1800s in the Texas plains written by British author Henry William Herbert. - Summary by E.J. Wiley

These poems, from Herbert’s book <em>The Temple</em>, show the evolution of a soul’s relationship with God. Sudden reversals of mood are common, for although Herbert is best known for his quiet tone, he was not a tranquil man but proud and ambitious. He achieved tranquility by active effort. His works may be read autobiographically, for they are intensely personal. Yet through his personal experience we perceive a reality larger than the personal. For example, his many homely comparisons—to bowling, pulleys, laxatives, a blunted knife, sweeping a room—serve “for lights of Heavenly Truths,” as he says of scriptural references to matters of daily life like “a plough, a hatchet, leaven, boyes piping and dancing.” Hence we find in Herbert a startling simplicity of spirit, an almost mystical ability to make every sensory experience sacramental and to express deep and subtle emotions with perfect tact. But there are also angry, frustrated, nearly despairing moments when he longs for the worldly paths he might have taken, the academic honors, the seat in Parliament that he once held, “the ways of Pleasure, the sweet strains, / The lullings and the relishes of it.” But at such moments God is always at hand to throw him a lifeline—whispering in his ear, recalling him to a far deeper and older level of emotional experience. (summary by T. A. Copeland)

A poetic version of the Psalms by Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) and his sister, Mary Sidney Herbert, the Countess of Pembroke (1561-1621). "It is possible that the original Autograph manuscript of Sir Philip Sidney may still exist in the library at Wilton. It would have been desirable to have ascertained this, as it might prove which were versified by him, and which by his sister. This I have not been able to accomplish." Some of the Psalms may have been written by a third party.<br/> <br/> <i>The Christian Remembrancer</i> magazine for June, 1821 contains a paper by Dr. Cotton on English Psalmody. In speaking of this translation, he says, "By what strange means it has happened that this version has slept in unmerited obscurity for nearly two centuries and a half, I am utterly at a loss to divine. I see in many of them passages of considerable beauty; and notwithstanding the stiffness characteristic of the poetry of the day, there is often peculiar happiness of expression, a nerve and energy, a poetic spirit that might have disarmed, even if it could not extort praise, from the fastidious Warton himself." (Summary from the Advertisement)

George Herbert was one of the so-called Metaphysical Poets, along with John Donne and Andrew Marvel, and <i>The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations</i>, published in 1633, contains all his surviving English poems. All of Herbert's poems are on religious themes and are characterised by directness of expression which, in the Metaphysical manner, is functional rather than visual.<br><br> Herbert was for a time Public Orator at the University of Cambridge but later became a rural Parish Minister. Though he was always esteemed for his oratory, the poetic skill with which he expressed his thoughts had to wait many years to be fully appreciated.<br><br> (Summary by Alan Mapstone and Wikipedia)

George Herbert was an English poet, orator and cleric who was Public Orator at the University of Cambridge before becoming a rural Parish Minister. The Church Militant is the third part of George Herbert's large collection of religious poetry The Temple, the first two parts of which (The Church Porch and The Church) are available on Librivox: https://librivox.org/the-temple-by-george-herbert/ (Summary by Alan Mapstone)