Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
Someone wrote an entire article on the correct interpretation of the word "imp" in line 19. Yep.
For $200 you can purchase a lifetime membership to the George Herbert Society.
Not every book on George Herbert is about poetry. One critic has argued that Herbert single-handedly ruined the Anglican Church and that "the future strength of parochial ministry will be found in a recovery of historic, renewed understandings of priestly ministry." Sound like your kind of barrel of laughs? Order it on Amazon.
"Easter Wings" isn't the only pattern poem Herbert wrote. Here's an online version of "the Altar," in all its altar-shaped glory.
Check out these 9th-century images of some of the earliest pattern poetry. De laudibus sanctae crucis (In Praise of the Holy Cross) is a series of 28 religious poems combining acrostics with cyphers. Cool, right? Plus, the words contained within each image form tiny poems independent of the larger poem. Shout Out to Hrabanus Maurus for being the man.