ABSTRACT
A learned and spasmodically talented poet, Ralph Knevet has been deemed ‘the most interesting of Herbert’s avowed disciples after Vaughan’ (Summers, p. 200). Of several collections of poems he composed, ‘A Gallery to the Temple’ is doubtless his best – and, as its title suggests, was heavily influenced by Herbert. Most likely written in the 1640s though amended over the next two decades, the ‘Gallery’ remained in manuscript until its publication in 1966. The ensuing extract is from the prefatory address To the Reader. See further above, pp. 5–6.
Source: Knevet, ‘ Gallery to the Temple. Lyricall Poems vpon Sacred Occasions’, in British Library Add. MS 27447; reproduced from Charles, pp. 280–1.
