George Herbert
George Herbert
George Herbertwas a Welsh poet, orator and Anglican priest. Herbert's poetry is associated with the writings of the metaphysical poets, and he is recognized as "a pivotal figure: enormously popular, deeply and broadly influential, and arguably the most skilful and important British devotional lyricist."...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth3 April 1593
believe
He that believes all misseth; he that believes nothing, hits not.
sad soul welcome
Love bade me welcome, but my soul drew back.
life giving simplicity
Give me simplicity, that I may live, So live and like, that I may know Thy ways, Know them and practise them: then shall I give For this poor wreath, give Thee a crown of praise.
speech reason
Reason and speech we onely bring.
love faith clean
Ah my deare God! though I am clean forgot, Let me not love thee, if I love thee not.
beauty flames light
True beauty dwells on high: ours is a flame But borrowed thence to light us thither. Beauty and beauteous words should go together.
kings spring loss
I envy no man's nightingale or spring; Nor let them punish me with loss of rhyme, Who plainly say, My God, My King.
flames wind poetry
As flames do work and wind when they ascend, So did I weave myself into the sense.
long poetry sweetness
How wide is all this long pretense! There is in love a sweetness ready penned, Copy out only that, and save expense.
years snow aging
A snow year, a rich year.
life pairs windmills
You cannot make a windmill go with a pair of bellows.
art dirty men
Money, thou bane of bliss, and source of woe, Whence cam'st thou, that thou art so fresh and fine? I know thy parentage is base and low: Man found thee poor and dirty in a mine.
sweet giving soul
Only a sweet and virtuous soul, Like season'd timbered, never gives; But though the whole world turn to coal, Then chiefly lives.
enemy victory may
Pursue not a victory too far. He hath conquered well that hath made his enemy fly; thou mayest beat him to a desperate resistance, which may ruin thee.