O do not scourge me!
O do not blind me!
I have deserved that an Egyptian night
Should thicken all my powers; because my lust 15
Hath still sew’d fig-leaves to exclude thy light:
But I am frailty, and already dust;
O do not grind me!
O do not fill me
With the turn’d vial of thy bitter wrath! 20
For thou hast other vessels full of blood,
A part whereof my Saviour emptied hath,
Ev’n unto death: since he died for my good,
O do not kill me!
But O reprieve me! 25
For thou hast life and death at thy command;
Thou art both Judge and Saviour, feast and rod,
Cordial and Corrosive: put not thy hand
Into the bitter box; but O my God,
My God, relieve me! 30
THE WORLD.
Love built a stately house; where Fortune came,
And spinning fancies, she was heard to say,
That her fine cobwebs did support the frame,
Whereas they were supported by the same:
But Wisdom quickly swept them all away. 5
Then Pleasure came, who liking not the fashion,
Began to make Balconies, Terraces,
Till she had weak’ned all by alteration:
But rev’rend laws, and many a proclamation
Reformèd all at length with menaces. 10
Then enter’d Sin, and with that Sycamore,
Whose leaves first sheltered man from drought and dew,
Working and winding slyly evermore,
The inward walls and sommers cleft and tore:
But Grace shor’d these, and cut that as it grew. 15
Then Sin combin’d with Death in a firm band
To raze the building to the very floor:
Which they effected, none could them withstand.
But Love and Grace took Glory by the hand,
And built a braver Palace than before. 20
COLOSS. 3:3
Our life is hid with Christ in God.
My words and thoughts do both express this notion,
That Life hath with the sun a double motion.
The first Is straight, and our diurnal friend,
The other Hid and doth obliquely bend.
One life is wrapt In flesh, and tends to earth: 5
The other winds towards Him, whose happy birth
Taught me to live here so, That still one eye
Should aim and shoot at that which Is on high:
Quitting with daily labour all My pleasure,
To gain at harvest an eternal Treasure. 10
VANITY I.
The fleet Astronomer can bore,
And thread the spheres with his quick-piercing mind:
He views their stations, walks from door to door,
Surveys, as if he had design’d
To make a purchase there: he sees their dances, 5
And knoweth long before,
Both their full-ey’d aspects, and secret glances.
The nimble Diver with his side
Cuts through the working waves, that he may fetch
His dearly-earnèd pearl, which God did hide 10
On purpose from the vent’rous wretch;
That he might save his life, and also hers,
Who with excessive pride
Her own destruction and his danger wears.
The subtle Chymick can divest 15
And strip the creature naked, till he find
The callow principles within their nest:
There he imparts to them his mind,
Admitted to their bed-chamber, before
They appear trim and drest 20
To ordinary suitors at the door.
What hath not man sought out and found,
But his dear God? who yet his glorious law
Embosoms in us, mellowing the ground
With show’rs and frosts, with love and awe, 25
So that we need not say, Where’s this command?
Poor man, thou searchest round
To find out death, but missest life at hand.
LENT.
Welcome dear feast of Lent: who loves not thee,
He loves not Temperance, or Authority,
But is compos’d of passion.
The Scriptures bid us fast; the Church says, now:
Give to thy Mother, what thou wouldst allow 5
To ev’ry Corporation.
The humble soul compos’d of love and fear
Begins at home, and lays the burden there,
When doctrines disagree.
He says, in things which use hath justly got, 10
I am a scandal to the Church, and not
The Church is so to me.
True Christians should be glad of an occasion
To use their temperance, seeking no evasion,
When good is seasonable; 15
Unless Authority, which should increase
The obligation in us, make it less,
And Power itself disable.
Besides the cleanness of sweet abstinence,
Quick thoughts and motions at a small expense, 20
A face not fearing light:
Whereas in fullness there are sluttish fumes,
Sour exhalations, and dishonest rheums,
Revenging the delight.
Then those same pendant profits, which the spring 25
And Easter intimate, enlarge the thing,
And goodness of the deed.
Neither ought other men’s abuse of Lent
Spoil the good use; lest by that argument
We forfeit all our Creed. 30
It’s true, we cannot reach Christ’s forti’th day;
Yet to go part of that religious way,
Is better than to rest:
We cannot reach our Saviour’s purity;
Yet are we bid, Be holy ev’n as he. 35
In both let’s do our best.
Who goeth in the way which Christ hath gone,
Is much more sure to meet with him, than one
That travelleth by-ways:
Perhaps my God, though he be far before, 40
May turn, and take me by the hand, and more
May strengthen my decays.
Yet Lord instruct us to improve our fast
By starving sin and taking such repast
As may our faults control: 45
That ev’ry man may revel at his door,
Not in his parlour; banqueting the poor,
And among those his soul.
VIRTUE.
Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright,
The bridal of the earth and sky:
The dew shall weep thy fall tonight;
For thou must die.
Sweet rose, whose hue angry and brave 5
Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye:
Thy root is ever in its grave,
And thou must die.
Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses,
A box where sweets compacted lie; 10
My music shows ye have your closes,
And all must die.
Only a sweet and virtuous soul,
Like season’d timber, never gives;
But though the whole world turn to coal, 15
Then chiefly lives.
THE PEARL
(MATT. 13:45)
I know the ways of learning; both the head
And pipes that feed the press, and make it run;
What reason hath from nature borrowèd,
Or of itself, like a good housewife, spun
In laws and policy; what the stars conspire, 5
What willing nature speaks, what forc’d by fire;
Both th’ old discoveries, and the new-found seas,
The stock and surplus, cause and history:
All these stand open, or I have the keys:
Yet I love thee. 10
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I know the ways of honour, what maintains
The quick returns of courtesy and wit:
In vies of favours whether party gains,
When glory swells the heart, and mouldeth it
To all expressions both of hand and eye, 15
Which on the world a true-love-knot may tie,
And bear the bundle, wheresoe’er it goes:
How many drams of spirit there must be
To sell my life unto my friends or foes:
Yet I love thee. 20
I know the ways of pleasure, the sweet strains,
The lullings and the relishes of it;
The propositions of hot blood and brains;
What mirth and music mean; what love and wit
Have done these twenty hundred years, and more: 25
I know the projects of unbridled store:
My stuff is flesh, not brass; my senses live,
And grumble oft, that they have more in me
Than he that curbs them, being but one to five:
Yet I love thee. 30
I know all these, and have them in my hand:
Therefore not sealèd, but with open eyes
I fly to thee, and fully understand
Both the main sale, and the commodities;
And at what rate and price I have thy love; 35
With all the circumstances that may move:
Yet through these labyrinths, not my grovelling wit,
But thy silk twist let down from heav’n to me;
Did both conduct, and teach me, how by it
To climb to thee. 40
AFFLICTION IV.
Broken in pieces all asunder,
Lord, hunt me not,
A thing forgot,
Once a poor creature, now a wonder,
A wonder tortur’d in the space 5
Betwixt this world and that of grace.
My thoughts are all a case of knives,
Wounding my heart
With scatter’d smart,
As wat’ring pots give flowers their lives. 10
Nothing their fury can control,
While they do wound and prick my soul.
All my attendants are at strife,
Quitting their place
Unto my face: 15
Nothing performs the task of life:
The elements are let loose to fight,
And while I live, try out their right.
O help, my God! let not their plot
Kill them and me, 20
And also thee,
Who art my life: dissolve the knot,
As the sun scatters by his light
All the rebellions of the night.
Then shall those powers, which work for grief, 25
Enter thy pay,
And day by day
Labour thy praise, and my relief:
With care and courage building me,
Till I reach heav’n, and much more, thee. 30
MAN.
My God, I heard this day,
That none doth build a stately habitation,
But he that means to dwell therein.
What house more stately hath there been,
Or can be, than is Man? to whose creation 5
All things are in decay.
For Man is ev’ry thing,
And more: He is a tree, yet bears no fruit;
A beast, yet is, or should be more:
Reason and speech we only bring. 10
Parrots may thank us, if they are not mute,
They go upon the score.
Man is all symmetry,
Full of proportions, one limb to another,
And all to all the world besides: 15
Each part may call the farthest, brother:
For head with foot hath private amity,
And both with moons and tides.
Nothing hath got so far,
But Man hath caught and kept it, as his prey. 20
His eyes dismount the highest star:
He is in little all the sphere.
Herbs gladly cure our flesh; because that they
Find their acquaintance there.
For us the winds do blow, 25
The earth doth rest, heav’n move, and fountains flow.
Nothing we see, but means our good,
As our delight, or as our treasure:
The whole is, either our cupboard of food,
Or cabinet of pleasure. 30
The stars have us to bed;
Night draws the curtain, which the sun withdraws;
Music and light attend our head.
All things unto our flesh are kind
In their descent and being; to our mind 35
In their ascent and cause.
Each thing is full of duty:
Waters united are our navigation;
Distinguishèd, our habitation;
Below, our drink; above, our meat; 40
Both are our cleanliness. Hath one such beauty?
Then how are all things neat?
More servants wait on Man,
Than he’ll take notice of: in ev’ry path
He treads down that which doth befriend him, 45
When sickness makes him pale and wan.
O mighty love! Man is one world, and hath
Another to attend him.
Since then, my God, thou hast
So brave a Palace built; O dwell in it, 50
That it may dwell with thee at last!
Till then, afford us so much wit;
That, as the world serves us, we may serve thee,
And both thy servants be.
ANTIPHON II.
Chor. Praisèd be the God of love,
Men. Here below,
Ang. And here above:
Cho. Who hath dealt his mercies so,
Ang. To his friend, 5
Men. And to his foe;
Cho. That both grace and glory tend
Ang. Us of old,
Men. And us in th’ end.
Cho. The great shepherd of the fold 10
Ang. Us did make,
Men. For us was sold.
Cho. He our foes in pieces brake;
Ang. Him we touch;
Men. And him we take. 15
Cho. Wherefore since that he is such,
Ang. We adore,
Men. And we do crouch.
Cho. Lord, thy praises should be more.
Men. We have none, 20
Ang. And we no store.
Cho. Praisèd be the God alone,
Who hath made of two folds one.
UNKINDNESS.
Lord, make me coy and tender to offend:
In friendship, first I think, if that agree,
Which I intend,
Unto my friend’s intent and end.
I would not use a friend, as I use Thee. 5
If any touch my friend, or his good name;
It is my honour and my love to free
His blasted fame
From the least spot or thought of blame.
I could not use a friend, as I use Thee. 10
My friend may spit upon my curious floor:
Would he have gold? I lend it instantly;
But let the poor,
And thou within them, starve at door.
I cannot use a friend, as I use Thee. 15
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. 20
Yet can a friend what thou hast done fulfil?
O write in brass, My God upon a tree
His blood did spill
Only to purchase my good-will:
Yet use I not my foes, as I use Thee. 25
LIFE.
I made a posy, while the day ran by;
Here will I smell my remnant out, and tie
My life within this band.
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But time did beckon to the flowers, and they
By noon most cunningly did steal away, 5
And wither’d in my hand.
My hand was next to them, and then my heart:
I took, without more thinking, in good part
Time’s gentle admonition:
Who did so sweetly death’s sad taste convey, 10
Making my mind to smell my fatal day;
Yet sug’ring the suspicion.
Farewell dear flowers, sweetly your time ye spent,
Fit, while ye lived, for smell or ornament,
And after death for cures. 15
I follow straight without complaints or grief,
Since if my scent be good, I care not, if
It be as short as yours.
SUBMISSION.
But that thou art my wisdom, Lord,
And both mine eyes are thine,
My mind would be extremely stirr’d
For missing my design.
Were it not better to bestow 5
Some place and power on me?
Then should thy praises with me grow,
And share in my degree.
But when I thus dispute and grieve,
I do resume my sight, 10
And pilf’ring what I once did give,
Disseise thee of thy right.
How know I, if thou shouldst me raise,
That I should then raise thee?
Perhaps great places and thy praise 15
Do not so well agree.
Wherefore unto my gift I stand;
I will no more advise:
Only do thou lend me a hand,
Since thou hast both mine eyes. 20
JUSTICE I.
I cannot skill of these thy ways.
Lord, thou didst make me, yet thou woundest me;
Lord, thou dost wound me, yet thou dost relieve me:
Lord, thou relievest, yet I die by thee:
Lord, thou dost kill me, yet thou dost reprieve me. 5
But when I mark my life and praise,
Thy justice me most fitly pays:
For, I do praise thee, yet I praise thee not:
My prayers mean thee, yet my prayers stray:
I would do well, yet sin the hand hath got: 10
My soul doth love thee, yet it loves delay.
I cannot skill of these my ways.
CHARMS AND KNOTS.
Who read a chapter when they rise,
Shall ne’er be troubled with ill eyes.
A poor man’s rod, when thou dost ride,
Is both a weapon and a guide.
Who shuts his hand, hath lost his gold: 5
Who opens it, hath it twice told.
Who goes to bed and doth not pray,
George Herbert- Collected Poetical Works Page 9
