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Photo of George Herbert

Herbert, George

George Herbert was a Welsh poet, orator and Anglican priest. Being born into an artistic and wealthy family, he received a good education which led to his holding prominent positions at Cambridge University and Parliament. As a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, England, George Herbert excelled in languages and music. He went to college with the intention of becoming a priest, but his scholarship attracted the attention of King James I/VI. Herbert served in parliament for two years. public orator and poet

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Employment (I)

 If as a flower doth spread and die, 
Thou wouldst extend me to some good, 
Before I were by frost's extremity
Nipt in the bud; 

The sweetness and the praise were thine; 
But the extension and the room, 
Which in thy garland I should fill, were mine
At thy great doom.

For as thou dost impart thy grace, 
The greater shall our glory be.
The measure of our joys is in this place, 
The stuff 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 delays.

All things are busy; only I
Neither bring honey with the bees, 
Nor flowers to make that, nor the husbandry
To water these.

I am no link of thy great chain, 
But all my company is a weed.
Lord place me in thy consort; give one strain
To my poor reed.



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