| Nicholson & Lee, eds. The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse. 1917. |
| |
| 18. Affliction |
| By George Herbert (1593–1633) |
| |
| MY heart did heave, and there came forth ‘O God!’ | |
| By that I knew that Thou wast in the grief, | |
| To guide and govern it to my relief, | |
| Making a scepter of the rod: | |
| Hadst Thou not had Thy part, | 5 |
| Sure the unruly sigh had broke my heart. | |
| |
| But since Thy breath gave me both life and shape, | |
| Thou know’st my tallies; and when there ’s assign’d | |
| So much breath to a sigh, what’s then behinde? | |
| Or if some yeares with it escape, | 10 |
| The sigh then onely is | |
| A gale to bring me sooner to my blisse. | |
| |
| Thy life on earth was grief, and Thou art still | |
| Constant unto it, making it to be | |
| A point of honour now to grieve in me, | 15 |
| And in Thy members suffer ill. | |
| They who lament one crosse, | |
| Thou dying dayly, praise Thee to Thy losse. | |
|
|
