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Pattern and Patterning: A Study of Four Poems by George Herbert / Westerweel, Bart ; Herbert G ; Maurus H., 1984

 Item
Identifier: CC-00589-603

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Scope and Contents

The author indicates that emblem books contained poems based upon religious texts that might be classified as Picture Poems today in terms of visual presentation, viz., an illustration with a poetic caption. The author demonstrates that Herbert's pattern poems were extensions of the Emblematic tradition. He also provides several other examples of Alter poems in the classic literature. According to others, the religious content is not a mandatory feature of emblem poems.The emblem poem depicted in this bibliographic citation was taken from Withers' "A Collection of Emblemes, Ancient and Moderne" (1635). "The picture shows a rural landscape in which the sun, with kindly countenance, is shooting its rays with an eye at its center. The text is about sight and the eye of contemplation as the human faculty that was especially created by God for its capacity to achieve direct contact with Him." Westerweel adds, The vocabulary and ideas are Neoplatonic and are reminescent of the final passage in Dante's Paradise. "A Heart, which bore the figure of an Eye - Wide open to the Sunne, by some, was us'd, - When in an Emblem, they would signifie - A Minde, which on Celestiall Matters Mus'd... -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Dates

  • Creation: 1984

Creator

Extent

0 See container summary (1 soft cover book (274 pages)) ; 22.1 x 15 x 2.3 cm

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English

Physical Location

shelf alphabeti

Custodial History

The Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, on loan from Ruth and Marvin A. Sackner and the Sackner Family Partnership.

General

Published: Amsterdam, The Netherlands : Editions Rodopki B.V.. Nationality of creator: Dutch. General: Added by: CONV; updated by: RED.

Repository Details

Part of the The Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry Repository

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