Tag Archives: Poet

Love (III) George Herbert

14 Monday Oct 2013

Posted by in George Herbert, Love

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LOVE (III)

By George Herbert

Love bade me welcome. Yet my soul drew back
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,
If I lacked any thing.

A guest, I answered, worthy to be here:
Love said, You shall be he.
I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah my dear,
I cannot look on thee.
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
Who made the eyes but I?

Truth Lord, but I have marred them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.
And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?
My dear, then I will serve.
You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:
So I did sit and eat.

Anne Bradstreet: My Soul, Rejoice Thou in Thy God!

29 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by in Anne Bradstreet, Meditation, Puritan

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My soul, rejoice thou in thy God[1],

Boast of him all the day[2],

Walk in his law[3], and kiss the rod[4],

Cleave close to him alway.

 

What though thy outward man decay,

Thy inward shall wax strong[5];

Thy body vile it shall be changed,

And glorious made ere-long[6].

 

With Angels’ wings thy soul shall mount[7]

To bless the unseen by eye[8],

And drink at unexhausted fount[9]

Of joy unto eternity.

 

Thy tears shall all be dried up

Thy sorrows all shall fly[10]

Thy sins shall never be summoned up

Nor come in memory[11].

 

Then shall I know what thou hast done

For me, unworthy me.

And praise thee shall even as I ought

For wonders that I see.[12]

 

Base world, I trample on thy face,

Thy glory I despise,

No gain I find in ought below[13]

For God hath made me wise.

 

Come Jesus, quickly, blessed Lord[14]

Thy face when shall I see?[15]

O let me count each hour a day,

Till I dissolved be[16].

[1] Psalm 103:1.

[2] 1 Corinthians 1:31.

[3] Psalm 1:2.

[4] Psalm 2:12, 39:9. While the precise phrase does not appear in the Bible, it apparently had currency at least among the Puritans. Thomas Brooks uses the phrase on five occasions in his collected works. E.g.,

 

So, though a saint may at first stand a little out, yet when he remembers that afflictions are to carry nearer to God, he yields, and kisses the rod.

 

Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, Volume 1, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1866), 50.

[5] 2 Corinthians 4:16.

[6] 1 Corinthians 15:42-43.

[7] This was a conceit of the time, but does not appear in the Bible.

[8] 1 Timothy 6:16

[9] John 7:38.

[10] Revelation 21:4.

[11] Psalm 103:11-12; Revelation 21:5.

[12] 1 Corinthian 2:9.

[13] Psalm 73:25-26.

[14] This is an early Christian prayer, Maranatha, Our Lord Come! 1 Corinthians 16:22, Revelation 22:20.

[15] 1 John 3:1-2.

[16] Not a biblical conceit, see, e.g., http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/hamlet/soliloquies/tootoosolid.html This may be related to “my flesh and heart shall fail”, Psalm 73:25.