Poems by Mary Sidney Herbert

Biography

Mary Sidney Herbert was one of the first English women to achieve major recognition for her literary works. Mary wrote translations of 107 different Psalms, which were songs of Jews about suffering and lamenting. The Bible was an infallible authority to women of this time period in the authorization of their craft. Mary's family was very aristocratic, as her father was Sir Philip Sidney and her brother Philip was a famous courtier in his lifetime. Although Mary Sidney Herbert's writings are not as suggestive as Mary Wroth's writings, like Wroth, Mary Sidney also took a lover in her lifetime. After the death of Mary's brother Philip, Mary dedicated most of her career to Philip's memory. 

Poems

O:

• Mary discusses the importance of sacrifice 
• Mary asks God to show her his ways and direct her life
• Mary says she will avoid evil and not stray from God's will

Psalm 102:

• Mary says even in her saddest days, she looks to God for guidance
• She acknowledges that God has an eternal presence
• Mary says God's own world will one day perish

Psalm 150:

• Mary discusses the need to praise God with music, especially instruments
• Letting your love of God be known is very important

Psalm 51:

• Mary is asking God to send her His grace
• She is asking God to cleanse her and wipe her sins away
• Mary acknowledges her sins and asks that God spare her of the consequences of her sins
• Mary asks God to unlock her lips so that she may sing His praises

Psalm 55:

• Mary asks God to listen for her prayers
• Mary says she will cast her burdens on God's shoulders

Psalm 57:

• Mary is crying for God to extend his mercy from Heaven

Psalm 84:

• Mary says she desires to see the view of God from His high courts
• Mary says the man whose household is founded on God's word will be the most successful
• She says God is like the shining sun

To the Angel Spirit if the Most Excellent Sir Philip Sidney:

• Mary says this work is dedicated solely to the inspirational spirit of her brother Philip

[The Doleful Lay of Clorinda]:

• Mary is asking where she can direct her grief to relieve her heart of pain
• Mary says death is the devourer of all the world's delight
• Mary says when we are mourning the death of others, we are really mourning for our own sorrows and miseries