George Herbert

“ COme Lord, my head doth burn, my heart is sick,
While thou dost ever, ever stay:
Thy long deferrings wound me to the quick,
My spirit gaspeth night and day.
O show thy self to me,
Or take me up to thee!
How canst thou stay, considering the pace
The bloud did make, which thou didst waste?
When I behold it trickling down thy face,
I never saw thing make such haste,
O show thy self to me,
Or take me up to thee!
When man was lost, thy pitie lookt about
To see what help in th' earth or skie:
But there was none; at least no help without:
The help did in thy bosome lie. ”

“ That flesh is but the glasse, which holds the dust
That measures all our time; which also shall
Be crumbled into dust. ”

“ This spacious globe: Angels must have their joy,
Devils their rod, the sea his shore,
The windes their stint: and yet when I did call,
Thou heardst my call, and more.
I have not lost one single tear:
But when mine eyes
Did weep to heav'n, they found a bottle there
(As we have boxes for the poore)
Readie to take them in; yet of a size
That would contain much more.
But after thou hadst slipt a drop
From thy right eye,
(Which there did hang like streamers neare the top
Of some fair church to show the sore
And bloudie battell which thou once didst trie)
The glasse was full and more. ”

“ Old and new Babylon are to hell and night,
As is the moon and sunne to heav'n and light.
When th' one did set, the other did take place,
Confronting equally the law and grace.
They are hells land-marks, Satans double crest:
They are Sinnes nipples, feeding th' east and west.
But as in vice the copie still exceeds
The pattern, but not so in vertuous deeds;
So though Sinne made his latter seat the better,
The latter Church is to the first a debter.
The second Temple could not reach the first:
And the late reformation never durst
Compare with ancient times and purer yeares ”

“ Which cannot be,
Because thou dost abide with me,
And I depend on thee;
Yet when thou dost suppresse
The cheerfulnesse
Of thy abode,
And in my powers not stirre abroad,
But leave me to my load:
O what a damp and shade
Doth me invade!
No stormie night
Can so afflict or so affright,
As thy eclipsed light.
Ah Lord! do not withdraw,
Lest want of aw
Make Sinne appeare ”

“ Of a lesse world? the greater is but small,
A narrow cupboard for my griefs and doubts,
Which want provision in the midst of all.
Verses, ye are too fine a thing, too wise
For my rough sorrows: cease, be dumbe and mute,
Give up your feet and running to mine eyes,
And keep your measures for some lovers lute,
Whose grief allows him musick and a ryme:
For mine excludes both measure, tune, and time. ”

“ Thy wrath for sinne, as when mans sight was dimme,
And could see little, to regard his ease,
And bring by Faith all things to him?
Hungrie I was, and had no meat:
I did conceit a most delicious feast;
I had it straight, and did as truly eat,
As ever did a welcome guest.
There is a rare outlandish root,
Which when I could not get, I thought it here:
That apprehension cur'd so well my foot,
That I can walk to heav'n well neare. ”

“ Reason triumphs, and Faith lies by.
Could not that wisdome which first broacht the wine,
Have thicken'd it with definitions?
And jagg'd his seamlesse coat, had that been fine,
With curious questions and divisions?
But all the doctrine, which he taught and gave,
Was cleare as heav'n, from whence it came.
At least those beams of truth, which onely save,
Surpasse in brightnesse any flame.
Love God, and love your neighbour. Watch and pray. ”

“ But above all, thy Church and Spouse doth prove
Not the decrees of power, but bands of love.
Early didst thou arise to plant this vine,
Which might the more indeare it to be thine.
Spices come from the East; so did thy Spouse,
Trimme as the light, sweet as the laden boughs
Of Noahs shadie vine, chaste as the dove;
Prepar'd and fitted to receive thy love.
The course was westward, that the sunne might light
As well our understanding as our sight. ”

“ Both knees and heart, in crying night and day,
Come, come, my God, O come!
But no hearing.
O that thou shouldst give dust a tongue
To crie to thee,
And then not heare it crying! all day long
My heart was in my knee,
But no hearing. ”

“ BRave rose, (alas!) where art thou? in the chair
Where thou didst lately so triumph and shine,
A worm doth sit, whose many feet and hair
Are the more foul, the more thou wert divine.
This, this hath done it, this did bite the root
And bottome of the leaves: which when the winde
Did once perceive, it blew them under foot,
Where rude unhallow'd steps do crush and grinde
Their beauteous glories. ”

“ And shall the dew out-strip thy dove?
The dew, for which grasse cannot call,
Drop from above.
Death is still working like a mole,
And digs my grave at each remove:
Let grace work too, and on my soul
Drop from above. ”

“ All thy delight in me fulfill!
Let me not think an action mine own way,
But as thy love shall sway,
Resigning up the rudder to thy skill.
Lord, what is Man to thee,
That thou shouldst minde a rotten tree? ”

“ Although there were some fourtie heav'ns, or more,
Sometimes I peere above them all;
Sometimes I hardly reach a score,
Sometimes to hell I fall.
O rack me not to such a vast extent;
Those distances belong to thee:
The world's too little for thy tent,
A grave too big for me.
Wilt thou meet arms with man, that thou dost stretch
A crumme of dust from heav'n to hell?
Will great God measure with a wretch? ”

“ That from small fires comes oft no small mishap:
When suddenly I heard one say,
Do as thou usest, disobey,
Expell good motions from thy breast,
Which have the face of fire, but end in rest. ”

“ I struck the board, and cry'd, No more;
⁠I will abroad.
⁠What? shall I ever sigh and pine?
My lines and life are free; free as the rode,
⁠Loose as the winde, as large as store.
⁠Shall I be still in suit? ”

“ Farewell deare flowers, sweetly your time ye spent,
Fit, while ye liv'd, for smell or ornament,
And after death for cures.
I follow straight without complaints or grief,
Since if my sent be good, I care not, if
It be as short as yours. ”

“ Thy justice me most fitly payes:
For, I do praise thee, yet I praise thee not:
My prayers mean thee, yet my prayers stray:
I would do well, yet sinne the hand hath got:
My soul doth love thee, yet it loves delay. ”

“ The measure of our joyes is in this place,
The stuffe with thee.
Let me not languish then, and spend
A life as barren to thy praise,
As is the dust, to which that life doth tend,
But with delaies.
All things are busie ”

“ Then weep mine eyes, the God of love doth grieve:
Weep foolish heart,
And weeping live:
For death is drie as dust. Yet if ye part,
End as the night, whose sable hue
Your sinnes expresse; melt into dew. ”

“ With the one make warre to cease;
With the other blesse thy sheep,
Thee to love, in thee to sleep.
Let not Sinne devoure thy fold,
Bragging that thy bloud is cold,
That thy death is also dead,
While his conquests dayly spread ”

“ I Know the wayes of learning; both the head
And pipes that feed the presse, and make it runne;
What Reason hath from Nature borrowed,
Or of it self, like a good huswife, spunne
In laws and policie; what the starres conspire,
What willing Nature speaks, what forc'd by fire ”

“ Yet taking heart, I rose, and then perceiv'd
I was deceiv'd.
My hill was further: so I flung away,
Yet heard a crie
Just as I went, None goes that way
And lives: If that be all, said I,
After so foul a journey death is fair,
And but a chair. ”

“ My thoughts turn round,
And make me giddie; Lord, I fall,
Yet call.
From thee all pitie flows.
Mothers are kinde, because thou art,
And dost dispose
To them a part:
Their infants them; and they suck thee
More free. ”

“ HAving been tenant long to a rich Lord,
⁠Not thriving, I resolved to be bold,
⁠And make a suit unto him, to afford
A new small-rented lease, and cancell th' old.
In heaven at his manour I him sought:
⁠They told me there, that he was lately gone
⁠About some land, which he had deerly bought
Long since on earth, to take possession.
I straight return'd, and knowing his great birth,
⁠Sought him accordingly in great resorts;
⁠In cities, theatres, gardens, parks, and courts:
At length I heard a ragged noise and mirth
⁠Of theeves and murderers: there I him espied,
⁠Who straight, Your suit is granted, said, & died. ”

“ When that my friend pretendeth to a place,
I quit my interest, and leave it free:
But when thy grace
Sues for my heart, I thee displace;
Nor would I use a friend, as I use Thee.
Yet can a friend what thou hast done fulfill? ”

“ The late-past frosts tributes of pleasure bring.
Grief melts away
Like snow in May,
As if there were no such cold thing.
Who would have thought my shrivel'd heart
Could have recover'd greennesse? It was gone
Quite under ground,as flow'rs depart
To see their mother-root, when they have blown;
Where they together
All the hard weather,
Dead to the world, keep house unknown.
These are thy wonders, Lord of power,
Killing and quickning, bringing down to hell
And up to heaven in an houre ”

“ Pride and full sinnes have made the way a road.
Lie not; but let thy heart be true to God,
Thy mouth to it, thy actions to them both:
Cowards tell lies, and those that fear the rod;
The stormie working soul spits lies and froth.
Dare to be true. Nothing can need a ly:
A fault, which needs it most, grows two thereby. ”

“ But all is cleansed when the marble weeps.
⁠Sometimes Death, puffing at the doore,
⁠Blows all the dust about the floore:
But while he thinks to spoil the room, he sweeps.
⁠Blest be the Architect, whose art
⁠Could build so strong in a weak heart. ”

“ King of Glorie, King of Peace,
I will love thee:
And that love may never cease,
I will move thee.
Thou hast granted my request,
Thou hast heard me:
Thou didst note my working breast,
Thou hast spar'd me. ”

“ My searches are my daily bread;
Yet never prove.
My knees pierce th'earth, mine eies the skie;
And yet the sphere
And centre both to me denie
That thou art there.
Yet can I mark how herbs below
Grow green and gay ”

“ A broken Altar, Lord, thy servant reares,
Made of a heart, and cemented with teares:
Whose parts are as thy hand did frame;
No workmans tool hath touch'd the same.
A Heart alone
Is such a stone,
As nothing but
Thy power doth cut. ”

“ DEare Friend, sit down, the tale is long and sad:
And in my faintings I presume your love
Will more complie, then help. A Lord I had,
And have, of whom some grounds which may improve,
I hold for two lives, and both lives in me. ”

“ LOrd, in my silence how do I despise
What upon trust
Is styled honour, riches, or fair eyes;
But is fair dust!
I surname them guilded clay,
Deare earth, fine grasse or hay;
In all, I think my foot doth ever tread
Upon their head. ”

“ O do not scourge me!
O do not blinde me!
I have deserv'd that an Egyptian night
Should thicken all my powers; because my lust
Hath still sow'd fig-leaves to exclude thy light:
But I am frailtie, and alreadie dust ”

“ Thou Lord of life; since thy one death for me
Is more then all my deaths can be,
Though I in broken pay
Die over each houre of Methusalems stay.
If all mens tears were let
Into one common sewer, sea, and brine ”

“ Thy clay that weeps, thy dust that calls.
Thou art the Lord of glorie;
The deed and storie
Are both thy due: but I a silly flie,
That live or die
According as the weather falls.
Art thou all justice, Lord? ”

“ Tells to all he meets, his crosse:
He that sinnes, hath he no losse?
He that findes a silver vein,
Thinks on it, and thinks again:
Brings thy Saviours death no gain?
Who in heart not ever kneels,
Neither sinne nor Saviour feels. ”

“ Starres have their storms, ev'n in a high degree,
As well as we.
A throbbing conscience spurred by remorse
Hath a strange force:
It quits the earth, and mounting more and more,
Dares to assault thee, and besiege thy doore. ”

“ Wouldst thou his laws of fasting disanull?
⁠Enact good cheer?
⁠Lay out thy joy, yet hope to save it?
⁠Wouldst thou both eat thy cake, and have it?
⁠Great joyes are all at once;
But little do reserve themselves for more;
Those have their hopes ”

“ SWeet day, so cool, so calm, so bright,
The bridall of the earth and skie:
The dew shall weep thy fall to night;
⁠For thou must die. ”

“ Thy life on earth was grief, and thou art still
Constant unto it, making it to be
A point of honour, now to grieve in me,
And in thy members suffer ill.
They who lament one crosse,
Thou dying daily, praise thee to thy losse. ”

“ And he of all things fears two deaths alone.
Yet ev'n the greatest griefs
May be reliefs,
Could he but take them right, and in their wayes.
Happie is he, whose heart
Hath found the art
To turn his double pains to double praise. ”

“ To gain thy thirds and little part.
I see the world grows old, when as the heat
Of thy great love once spread, as in an urn
Doth closet up it self, and still retreat,
Cold sinne still forcing it, till it return,
And calling Justice, all things burn. ”

“ There is no dealing with thy mighty passion:
For though I die for thee, I am behinde;
My sinnes deserve the condemnation.
O make me innocent, that I
May give a disentangled state and free:
And yet thy wounds still my attempts defie,
For by thy death I die for thee. ”