My tender Age in sorrow did begin
And still with sicknesses and shame
Thou didst so punish sin
That I became
Most thin.
With thee
Let me combine,
And feel this day thy victory:
For if I imp (graft) my wing on thine,
Affliction shall advance the flight in me.
George Herbert (1593-1633), ‘Easter Wings’, The Temple, 1633.
George Herbert's recent biographer, John Drury, writes, 'It is a pattern poem, crafted to look like the wings of birds flying eastward across the page to the rising sun.' On his deathbed, Herbert was reported to have sent a message saying the reader would find in his poems, 'a picture of the many spiritual Conflicts that have past between God and my Soul, before I could subject mine to the will of Jesus my Master: in whose service I have now found perfect freedom.'
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