Music At Midnight<\/a>, with Herbert\u2019s \u201cLove (III)\u201d:<\/p>\nLove bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back,\u00a0<\/p>\n
Guilty of dust and sin.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack\u00a0<\/p>\n
From my first entrance in,\u00a0<\/p>\n
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning\u00a0<\/p>\n
If I lacked anything.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA guest,\u201d I answered, \u201cworthy to be here\u201d:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Love said, \u201cYou shall be he.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI, the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear,\u00a0<\/p>\n
I cannot look on thee.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWho made the eyes but I?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTruth, Lord; but I have marred them; let my shame\u00a0<\/p>\n
Go where it doth deserve.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd know you not,\u201d says Love, \u201cwho bore the blame?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dear, then I will serve.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou must sit down,\u201d says Love, \u201cand taste my meat.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
So I did sit and eat.<\/p>\n
As Drury notes, this contains \u201cChristianity\u2019s whole grand biblical narrative of humanity\u201d: \u201cThe guest is \u2018guilty of dust and sin.\u2019 He is descended from Adam, the primal man who sinned against his Creator\u2019s command not to eat the fruit of the \u2018tree of the knowledge of good and evil\u2019 in the middle of paradise and was punished for it by mortality: \u2018dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return.\u2019 The divine creation of man is held in the host\u2019s punning riposte \u2018Who made the eyes but I?\u2019 Love likes jokes. Then the redemption in Christ, his divine taking upon himself of man\u2019s sin and punishment, is as deftly and lightly put in the host\u2019s next parry: \u2018And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?\u2019 Finally, the prophetic promise that at the end of history redemption would be sealed and celebrated with a banquet . . . is settled into that last, monosyllabic line \u2018So I did sit and eat\u2019\u201d (3). There are echoes of Psalm 23, of the Song of Songs, of Luke 12, and of the Eucharistic banquet.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
John Drury begins his book on George Herbert,\u00a0Music At Midnight, with Herbert\u2019s \u201cLove (III)\u201d: Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back,\u00a0 Guilty of dust and sin.\u00a0 But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack\u00a0 From my first entrance in,\u00a0 Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning\u00a0 If I lacked anything.\u00a0 \u201cA guest,\u201d I answered, \u201cworthy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[300],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-george-herbert-poetry"],"yoast_head":"\n
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