Jones Very was one of the most accomplished poets among the New England Transcendentalists and is best known for his intensely pious religious sonnets describing the "new birth" and the nature of the "will-less existence," a state of absolute harmony with God that Very believed was the highest accomplishment of the religious life. Jones Very was born in Salem, Massachusetts, 28 August 1813, the eldest of the six children of Jones Very, a ship captain, and Lydia (Very) Very. Jones Very the son entered Harvard College as a sophomore in 1834 and distinguished himself as a scholar of the classics and an essayist, winning two consecutive Bowdoin Prizes for his essays, as a junior and as a senior. Very's outstanding scholarly achievement at Harvard was also accompanied, however, by a tumultuous religious struggle that eventually changed the course of his life and resulted in an unusual and extraordinary poetic achievement. During...