Submit a Poem
Get Your Premium Membership
spacer
Pinterest button


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

Email Poem - Affliction (III)Email Poem

Affliction (III)

 My heart did heave, and there came forth, 'O God'! 
By that I knew that thou wast in the grief, 
To guide and govern it to my relief, 
Making a sceptre of the rod: 
Hadst thou not had thy part, 
Sure the unruly sigh had broke my heart.

But since thy breath gave me both life and shape, 
Thou know'st my tallies; and when there's assigned 
So much breath to a sigh, what's then behind? 
Or if some years with it escape, 
The sigh then only is
A gale to bring me sooner to my bliss.

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 cross, 
Thou dying daily, praise thee to thy loss.



Comments