Edmund Waller, Divine Poems

Glyn Pursglove (Swansea University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.04: English Writing and Culture of the Seventeenth Century, 1625-1688.
Vol. editors: Jennifer Brady (Rhodes College), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Neil Forsyth (Université de Lausanne), Claire Preston (Queen Mary, University of London), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1685

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poem collection

Resources

Edmund Waller's Divine Poems, published when the author was a very old man, make up a slim octavo volume of a mere 35 pages. The volume contains a few discursive poems in heroic couplets, the longest of which is “Of Divine Love”, its near 300 lines divided into six cantos. Waller (a friend of Hobbes) was well aware of what he calls “late philosophy”, but for him such “new philosophy” (to borrow a phrase from Donne) did not “call all in doubt”. Waller's poems are written out of a seemingly sure conviction that “Sacred Writ” is “elder than light, and shall outlast the sun”.

To love is to believe, to hope, to know;
'Tis an essay, a taste of heaven below!

Reflections on the …

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444 words

Citation: Pursglove, Glyn. "Divine Poems". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 October 2000 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5571, accessed 25 November 2024.]

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