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
heart
Who would have thought my shrivel'd heart could have recovered greenness?
needs pounds poor
He that needs five thousand pound to live, Is full as poor as he that needs but five.
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.