She homeschooled George's siblings and then enrolled George in Westminister School, where he studied Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. His mother was left to raise ten children. Herbert's was a distinguished, noble Welsh family (his brother, Edward, became the father of English deism), but his father died when George was only 3 years old. Teresa of Avila writes The Way of Perfection It foreshadowed the aesthetic and vocational bent of a man who was to become one of England's finest metaphysical poets. Instead, George wrote that the love of God is a fitter subject for verse than the love of woman. They referred not to his mother's kindness, her beauty, or any other characteristic, nor did they mention the occasion for the sonnet, New Year's Day. They were far more akin to the work of John Donne, who had dedicated his Holy Sonnets to Magdalen, his patron. These were quite unlike those of William Shakespeare, who had published his Sonnets the year earlier. It was the New Year's celebration, and Magdalen Newport Herbert had received two sonnets from her son, George. "A verse may find him who a sermon flies."
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