"With Winges of Faith": Herbert's Communion Poems

Abstract

At the heart of George Herbert's poetry lies the eucharistic Christ. Sacramental imagery and metaphor ever radiate from that center to construct one interlacing body of verse. As C. A. Patrides notes, Eucharist is the marrow of Herbert's sensibility.1 In H. Communion, Banquet, and Love (III), Herbert interprets the nature of the eucharistic experience proper. What emerges from these poems-and their echoes throughout The Temple-is a participatory pattern, a eucharistic blueprint. Collectively they narrate the full eucharistic experience, and the interpretation of that sacrament which they figure forth is closely allied to the eucharistic teachings of John Calvin. Albeit Herbert's poetry is not a precise exposition of anyone's doctrine, yet an understanding of Calvin's position on the Eucharist can lead to a fuller appreciation of the poetic activity of The Temple.2 European Protestantism, however influential on the early Reformed Church of England in matters of doctrine, failed in its own attempts to settle the question of Christ's presence in the Eucharist. English Protestantism, effecting reformation independently of Europe, formulated no specific doctrine of the Eucharist and soon fell heir to the Continental struggle for definition. Thomas Cranmer, whose liturgical genius largely determined the modus operandi of the early Reformed Church,