Engraving of the poet George Herbert (from his collection, The Temple)

PRAYER (I)

PRAYER the Churches’ banquet, Angels’ age,
God’s breath in man returning to his birth,
The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
The Christian plummet sounding heav’n and earth;

Engine against th’ Almightie, sinner’s towre,
Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,
The six daies world-transposing in an houre,
A kinde of tune, which all things heare and fear;

Softnesse, and peace, and joy, and love, and blisse,
Exalted Manna, gladnesse of the best,
Heaven in ordinarie, man well drest,
The milkie way, the bird of Paradise,

Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul’s bloud,
The land of spices, something understood.

TO HEAR MALCOLM FARLEY READ GEORGE HERBET’S SONNET, PRAYER (I), CLICK ON THE AUDIO ICON BELOW.