| Nicholson & Lee, eds. The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse. 1917. |
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| 24. The Collar |
| By George Herbert (1593–1633) |
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| I STRUCK the board, and cry’d, ‘No more; | |
| I will abroad.’ | |
| What, shall I ever sigh and pine? | |
| My lines and life are free; free as the rode, | |
| Loose as the winde, as large as store. | 5 |
| Shall I be still in suit? | |
| Have I no harvest but a thorn | |
| To let me bloud, and not restore | |
| What I have lost with cordiall fruit? | |
| Sure there was wine | 10 |
| Before my sighs did drie it; there was corn | |
| Before my tears did drown it. | |
| Is the yeare onely lost to me? | |
| Have I no bayes to crown it, | |
| No flowers, no garlands gay? all blasted, | 15 |
| All wasted? | |
| Not so, my heart; but there is fruit, | |
| And thou hast hands. | |
| Recover all thy sigh-blown age | |
| On double pleasures; leave thy cold dispute | 20 |
| Of what is fit and not; forsake thy cage, | |
| Thy rope of sands, | |
| Which pettie thoughts have made; and made to thee | |
| Good cable, to enforce and draw, | |
| And be thy law, | 25 |
| While thou didst wink and wouldst not see. | |
| Away! take heed; | |
| I will abroad. | |
| Call in thy death’s-head there, tie up thy fears; | |
| He that forbears | 30 |
| To suit and serve his need | |
| Deserves his load. | |
| But as I rav’d and grew more fierce and wilde | |
| At every word, | |
| Me thought I heard one calling, ‘Childe’; | 35 |
| And I reply’d, ‘My Lord.’ | |
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