Rounding out the last several days of devotional poetry: George Herbert. I always think about posting Easter Wings on Easter, but the problem is that any type-rendered version looks wrong to me; it's a poem that's fundamentally meant for manuscript, where it's much easier to write out as visual wings. But I started today—before reading a bunch of Herbert this afternoon—by making a very spectacular brunch for one (deviled eggs, oven bacon, blueberry buttermilk pancakes) and then watching Jesus Christ Superstar online with friends. It wasn't how today was supposed to go, pre-virus, but it had its moments. And I think we can probably all use a little metaphysical love in our lives.
Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sinne.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,
If I lack'd any thing.
A guest, I answer'd, worthy to be here:
Love said, you shall be he.
I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear,
I cannot look on thee.
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
Who made the eyes but I?
Truth Lord, but I have marr'd them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.
And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?
My dear, then I will serve.
You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:
So I did sit and eat.
—George Herbert (1593-1633), "Love (III)" from The Temple, 1633. This is the closing lyric of The Temple, and I took it from the excellent Helen Wilcox edition of The English Poems of George Herbert (Cambridge University Press, 2007), but slightly modernized the spelling. This is one of the most widely discussed and known of Herbert's poems, and I think it's pretty special.
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