George Herbert

Quotes

1. O who will show me those delights on high?

   Echo: I.

2. 

   Thou tarriest, while I die,

   And fall to nothing: thou dost reign,

   And rule on high,

   While I remain

   In bitter grief: yet I am styl'd

   Thy child.

3. 

   Then let wrath remove;

   Love will do the deed:

   For with love

   Stony hearts will bleed.

4. 

   Love bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back,

   Guilty of dust and sin.

   But quick-ey'd Love, observing me grow slack

   From my first entrance in,

   Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,

   If I lacked any thing.

5. 

   I gave to Hope a watch of mine; but he

   An Anchor gave to me.

6. 

   Religion stands on tip-toe in our land,

   Ready to pass to the American strand.

7. 

   Love is that liquor sweet and most divine,

   Which my God feels as blood, but I as wine.

8. 

   Do not beguile my heart,

   Because thou art

   My power and wisdom. Put me not to shame,

   Because I am

   Thy clay that weeps, thy dust that calls.

9. 

   And now in age I bud again,

   After so many deaths I live and write;

   I once more smell the dew and rain,

   And relish versing: O my only light,

   It cannot be

   That I am he

   On whom thy tempests fell all night.

10. 

    Throw away thy rod,

    Throw away thy wrath:

    O my God,

    Take the gentle path.

11. 

    A servant with this clause

    Makes drudgery divine:

    Who sweeps a room, as for thy laws,

    Makes that and th' action fine.

12. 

    He would adore my gifts instead of me,

    And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature:

    So both should losers be.