Herbert's poetry is on the surface about God, religion, devotion and other mind-numbing (to me) generalities. However, these doctrinal MacGuffins are only there (in my secular reading) for Herbert to jump-start his creativity. His fecund display of wit, craft, rhyme and meter are in almost every poem. He dabbles in concrete poetry (and makes a masterpiece). He sneaks in word-play like acrostics and hidden words. He uses "tricks" like using the last word of a line to begin the next line to great effect. And above all, you can understand and appreciate what he is doing (unlike *cough* John Donne).