Analysis of The Elixir

George Herbert 1593 (Montgomery) – 1633 (Bemerton)



Teach me, my God and King,
      In all things Thee to see,
    And what I do in anything
      To do it as for Thee.

Not rudely, as a beast,
      To run into an action;
    But still to make Thee prepossest,
      And give it his perfection.

A man that looks on glass,
      On it may stay his eye;
  Or it he pleaseth, through it pass,
      And then the heav'n espy.

All may of Thee partake:
      Nothing can be so mean,
  Which with his tincture--"for Thy sake"--
      Will not grow bright and clean.

A servant with this clause
      Makes drudgery divine:
  Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws,
      Makes that and th' action fine.

This is the famous stone
      That turneth all to gold;
  For that which God doth touch and own
      Cannot for less be told.


Scheme ABAB CDCD EXEB FGFG HIHI JKJK
Poetic Form Quatrain  (83%)
Metre 111101 011111 0111010 111111 110101 1101110 111111 0111010 011111 111111 1111111 010110 111101 101111 11110111 111101 010111 110001 11011111 11011101 110101 11111 11111101 101111
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 781
Words 138
Sentences 7
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 21
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 86
Words per stanza (avg) 23
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 24, 2023

42 sec read
182

George Herbert

The Very Reverend Honourable George Herbert was an Anglican priest. more…

All George Herbert poems | George Herbert Books

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