'Imagine - if you can - God reading this poem.' So begins this brief, stylish book, citing Herbert's 'Dialogue' ('Sweetest Saviour, of my soul ...') and asking afterwards: 'Is God pleased with what he reads?' Professor Nuttall's point is that such a question would have seemed perfectly natural in the 17th century. Many of Herbert's poems are prayers or dialogues with God. Prayers are literal addresses, presupposing a divine listener; dialogues written up after the event may be reports of transactions believed 'really' to have taken place. In any such transaction, God has always been deemed a direct participant.

LRB 4 December 1980 | PDF Download