Prayer (I)

George Herbert 1593 (Montgomery) – 1633 (Bemerton)



Prayer the Church's banquet, angels' age,
God's breath in man returning to his birth,
The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
The Christian plummet sounding heav'n and earth;

Engine against th'Almighty, sinner's tower,
Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,
The six-days' world transposing in an hour,
A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear;

Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,
Exalted manna, gladness of the best,
Heaven in ordinary, man well drest,
The Milky Way, the bird of Paradise,

Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul's blood,
The land of spices; something understood.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 06, 2023

31 sec read
163

Quick analysis:

Scheme XAXA BCBC XDDX XX
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 627
Words 98
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 2

George Herbert

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

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