Share:
  Guess poet | Poets | Poets timeline | Isles | Contacts

George Herbert - ConfessionGeorge Herbert - Confession
Work rating: Low


          O What a cunning guest Is this same Grief!  Within my heart I made     Closets; and in them many a chest;     And like a master in my trade, In those chests, boxes; in each box, a till: Yet Grief knows all, and enters when he will.           No scrue, no piercer can Into a piece of timber work and winde,     As God`s afflictions into man,     When he a torture hath design`d. They are too subtill for the subt`llest hearts; And fall, like rheumes, upon the tendrest parts.           We are the earth; and they, Like moles within us, heave and cast about:     And till they foot and clutch their prey,     They never cool, much lesse give out. No smith can make such locks, but they have keyes; Closets are halls to them; and hearts, high-wayes.           Onely an open breast Doth shut them out, so that they cannot enter;     Or, if they enter, cannot rest,     But quickly seek some new adventure. Smooth open hearts no fastning have; but fiction Doth give a hold and handle to affliction.           Wherefore my faults and sinnes, Lord, I acknowledge; take thy plagues away:     For since confession pardon winnes,     I challenge here the brightest day, The clearest diamond: let them do their best, They shall be thick and cloudie to my breast.
Source

The script ran 0.003 seconds.