Brescia English professor strikes poetry gold by identifying
George Herbert poem Every now and again a researcher will make a
significant discovery when looking for something else entirely,
and the discovery proves to be significant. When examining a
manuscript in the British Library, Jim Doelman discovered that
George Herbert was the author of the poem –– On the death of Mr.
Barker of Hammon, and his wife who dyed both together. The poem
had been misidentified many years ago. To authenticate his
finding, Doelman conducted some scholarly detective work and
discovered someone else had misidentified those initials.
Doelman also established that the poem was written about
Herbert’s aunt and uncle who died within months of each other.
The poem has never appeared in any anthology or journal as
Herbert’s because of the misidentification of those initials, so
this was a significant discovery. Dr. Doelman states “It’s one
of these moments when you feel like a detective who has found
the evidence”. After the discovery