John Bunyan, baptized on 30 November 1628 and dead on 31 August 1688, rose from the working life of rural Bedfordshire to become one of the most influential English religious writers of all time. Though he is best known as the author of The Pilgrim’s Progress, a book whose characters and phrases entered the language of generations of readers, Bunyan was also a preacher, controversialist, autobiographer, pastor, poet,…
“Temptations, when we meet them at first, are as the lion that roared upon Samson; but if we overcome them, the next time we see them, we shall find a nest of honey within them.”
Neighbourhood:
Cavalier Poets, Devotional Poets, Hymn Writers, Renaissance Poets, Restoration Poets
Emotional landscape: Spirituality, Peace, Joy
George Herbert was born on 3 April 1593 into one of the great border families of Wales, at Montgomery Castle, the fifth son of Richard Herbert and Magdalen Newport Herbert. He died, not yet forty, on 1 March 1633 at Bemerton, near Salisbury, probably of consumption, after only a few years as a country priest. Between those two dates lies one of the most quietly dramatic lives in English literary history: a life that…
“Nothing is little to God.”
Neighbourhood:
Devotional Poets, Metaphysical Poets, Mystical & Spiritual Poets
Emotional landscape: Spirituality, Peace, Tenderness