Love (III) by George Herbert
In posting about the darkness of our age earlier this morning, I thought I would share the poem below. In a class I am in being taught by Dr. Dennis Johnson, he read aloud this poem with tears. One help in reading these verses is each time you see Love to substitute in the name of Jesus. Truly Love will conquer all.
Source: _George Herbert and the Seventeenth-Century Religious Poets _ (W. W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1978)
<div><span id="annotation-1" class="annotation">Love bade me welcome. Yet my soul drew back</span></div>
<div> Guilty of dust and sin.</div>
<div>But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow <span id="annotation-2" class="annotation">slack</span></div>
<div> From my first entrance in,</div>
<div>Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,</div>
<div> <span id="annotation-3" class="annotation">If I lacked any thing.</span></div>
<div></div>
<div>A guest, I answered, worthy to be here:</div>
<div> Love said, You shall be he.</div>
<div>I the <span id="annotation-5" class="annotation">unkind</span>, ungrateful? <span id="annotation-6" class="annotation">Ah my dear</span>,</div>
<div> I cannot look on thee.</div>
<div>Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,</div>
<div> Who made the eyes but I?</div>
<div></div>
<div>Truth Lord, but I have <span id="annotation-4" class="annotation">marred</span> them: let my shame</div>
<div> Go where it doth deserve.</div>
<div>And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?</div>
<div> My dear, then <span id="annotation-7" class="annotation">I will serve</span>.</div>
<div><span id="annotation-8" class="annotation">You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:</span></div>
<div> <span id="annotation-9" class="annotation">So I did sit and eat.</span></div>