Sonnet II
Sure Lord, there is enough in thee to dry Oceans of Ink ; for, as the Deluge did Cover the Earth, so doth thy Majesty :
Each Cloud distills thy praise, and doth forbid Poets to turn it to another use. Roses and Lilies speak thee ; and to make A pair of Cheeks of them, is thy abuse.
Why should I Womens eyes for Chrystal take?
Such poor invention burns in their low mind, Whose fire is wild, and doth not upward go To praise, and on thee Lord, some Ink bestow.
Open the bones, and you shall nothing find In the best face but filth, when Lord, in thee The beauty lies, in the
From Walton's Life.
This, and Sonnet I, were sent by Herbert to his mother in 1610 'as a New-years gift' ;
They declare, he told her, 'my resolution to be, that my poor Abilities in Poetry shall be all, and ever consecrated to Gods glory'.
George Herbert
Other author posts
Sunday
O Day most calm, most bright The fruit of this, the next world's bud, Th' endorsement of supreme delight, Writ by a friend, and with his bloud; The couch of Time;
Vanitie
The fleet Astronomer can bore And thread the spheres with his quick-piercing minde He views theirs stations, walks from doore to doore, Surveys, as if he had design'd To make a purchase there: he sees their dances, And knoweth long before, Bo...
Easter Wings
Lord, Who createdst man in wealth and store, Though foolishly he lost the same, Decaying more and more, Till he became Most poore: With Thee O let me rise, As larks, harmoniously, And sing this day Thy victories: Then shall the fall furt...
Christmas
After all pleasures as I rid one day, My horse and I, both tir'd, bodie and minde, With full crie of affections, quite astray; I took up the next inne I could finde There when I came, whom found I but my deare, My dearest Lord, expecting...