Tag Archives: "Denial"

Gentle Exemplar, Help Us in Our Trials

By Robin Bates | Published: July 26, 2025

It’s no surprise to learn to Malcolm Guite’s love George Herbert. Both poets grapple with doubts and fears and use poetry to reconnect with God.

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My Heart Was in My Knees, but No Hearing

By Robin Bates | Published: September 7, 2024

Herbert laments that sometimes, when he prays, his words don’t get through to God. And yet he finds peace in the end.

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Cheer and Tune My Heartless Breast

By Robin Bates | Published: October 19, 2019

About prayer, Jesus at one point said to pay as though you are a desperate widow before an indifferent judge. Much of Herbert’s poetry sees God in this light.

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My Cries Cannot Pierce Thy Silent Ears

By Robin Bates | Published: October 10, 2015

George Herbert poetry is admirable in the way he wrestles with his spiritual doubts. He may owe a debt to “The Book of Job,” where we also see such wrestling.

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Praying to God to Tune Our Hearts

By Robin Bates | Published: June 27, 2010

Spiritual Sunday There are those who think it an impiety to question God. I find more honest, and true, those people who wrestle with their doubts. That’s why I esteem so highly the poetry of George Herbert, the 17th –century Anglican rector. He is constantly searching for God. In some of his poems he struggles […]

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