Time and Liturgy in Herbert's Poetry

Abstract

Liturgy in its narrow or ordinary sense has an ecclesiastical significance, with reference principally to the Eucharistie rite, especially of the Eastern churches. Originally, in Greek, the term was applied to a public duty of any sort, not exclusively religious, then later it came to be applied to the services of the Temple. In English, the term is used to describe all the services of the Church, not necessarily (though frequently) the Eucharist or Holy Communion. But I apply liturgy in a further, metaphorical sense to describe a way of seeing and ordering experience.