I love the day we celebrate George Herbert- a real excuse to read through a few of his poems (as if I should need one). The Quiddity is a short poem about poetry itself. Quiddity means essence or what a thing really is and in this.
Herbert starts with what verse is not - a good list - but then in the last two lines comes the essence and truth of the thing. Despite the things it is not it is where he finds himself with God.
We can take many things from George Herbert - there are the much more famous love poems, the well sung hymns but on this Lenten Saturday we could do worse than consider this little poem - its letting go of poetry and then its re-embracing it at another level and for another purpose. In itself it is not a thing to be sought or clung to - but in that it is a route for George Herbert to God - it is important.
What are our routes to God and how do we value and preserve them? They may well be things which, in themselves, would offer little value but are given to us as pearls of great price. Finding these thing and places is important. With anchors, for finding the Divine, we can expand our horizons in life - as George Herbert wrote in the well known hymn
Teach me, my God and King,
In all things Thee to see,
And what I do in anything
To do it as for Thee.
1 comment:
Thank you for your graciousness in sharing these beautiful thoughts about George Herbert. I especially appreciate the little hymn at the end which I have put in my journal as a daily mantra.
Funny how the internet works as a kind of Muse. I came upon a reference to St. Thomas Aquinas through Ted Nottingham's video and then went to Wiki to read up on him and thereupon discovered this word "Quiddity." And here I am being enlightened with your lovely thoughts on the subject.
In Gladness,
Michael
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