Love (III)

Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back,

Guiltie of dust and sinne.

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

From my first entrance in,

Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,

If I lack'd any thing.

A guest, I answer'd, worthy to be here:

Love said, You shall be he.

I the unkinde, ungratefull? Ah my deare,

I cannot look on thee.

Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,

Who made the eyes but I?

Truth Lard, but I have marr'd them; let my shame

Go where it doth deserve

And know you not, say!es Love; who bare the blame?

My dearer then I will serve.

You must sit down, sages Love, and taste my meat:

So I did sit and eat.

GEORGE HERBERT*

* George Herbert (1593-1633), priest and poet, is the author of the verse collection The Temple ( 1633) and the prose work A Priest to the Temple; or the Country Parson ( 1652), both collected in The Works of George Herbert, edited by F. E. Hutchinson (Oxford University Press, 1941). "Love (III)," which describes the soul's entrance into heaven in terms of entering a tavern whose waiter is Divine Love, is the closing poem of The Temple. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, describes Herbert as "an author of sincere religious conviction and considerable poetic gifts, skilful in handling both rhyme and rhythm. Herbert is among the first devotional poets of the Church of England of whose spirit and teaching he is an authentic representative."

Copyright Anglican Theological Review, Inc. Spring 2000
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