Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life:
such a way as gives us breath,
such a truth as ends all strife,
such a life as killeth death.
Come, my Light, my Feast, my Strength:
such a light as shows a feast,
such a feast as mends in length,
such a strength as makes his guest.
Come, my Joy, my Love, my Heart:
such a joy as none can move,
such a love as none can part,
such a heart as joys in love.
-George Herbert +1633
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10 comments:
Nice sentiment in what 1650.
Ended like 1792 or so, well--except for the Tories and royals who survived.
You're sort of a coward jh. Then that's the fate of the priestly caste, as even Nietzsche thought.
yes i suppose you're right
but with such insightful
and perceptive commentors on this blog it may just help me to a little courage
nietzche and everything he stood for is dead
i am not of the priestly caste
a mere humble benedictine brother
hardly noticeable on the ecclesial radar
althought
in the older hierarchy the monastic life reigned superior to all religious life
it was considered the summit
too many assholes in politics for me to be too concerned
but i guess somebody needs to hold the torch...till it drips burning tar on the arm
to stop at a lyric like this at something like...nice sentiment... betrays a literary and historical ignorance i would not be proud of...but hey
free speech for everyone...even the woefully unqualified
maranatha dude
and happy solstice to boot
jh
The verse sounds ...Puritanical.
That said, I never claimed your site/writing was meaningless.
Nietzsche....he's misread and misapplied by many fratboy scoffers and perhaps flawed in many ways....but FN still has a few interesting bon mots here and there, even if one disagrees with his anti-rationalist aspects. In this age of clerical...failings (WASP, jew/muslim as well as catholic) some humans may turn to writers such as Nietzsche--his writing a bit superior to the likes of british liberal-skeptics.
Nietzsche sort of believed in Christ's message anyway, IMHE--tho not with the Church as institution or the phony piety of most evangelicals (or perhaps with monotheism).
Feliz Navidad
Didn't Herbert write a poem where God was a landlord?
Seems to me it was called Redemption. I think Bob Marley recorded it. Nice sentiment.
craig
you got me thinking
i thought no way
that's not a george herbert song
pirates o they rob I
that does not sound like
17th century english
but it forced me to go back to
that poem
redemption
nice sentiment indeed
they don't wield metaphor like that anymore
ah well
buon natal
jh
George Herbert was an Anglican cleric, right.
Tho' brighter than the average WASP, didn't GH sing "Keep the Croppies down, lads, keep the croppies down" along with the bapticks of the Time, ie Cromwell's baptist-presby. thugs...figuratively squeaking at least
Which is to say, back in the day,
Herbert and the Tory anglicans were persona non grata for catholics, irish or otherwise (tho' granted at times high church Angs waffled at times, even prefering the Roman Monarchist (as Locke termed the papacy) to the calvinists AND lutherans...ie see one Kirby Olson for definition of Roundhead)
Hasta
Heard there's a tattoo parlor in Hawaii called Soul Signature. Clever name. I like Herbert's metaphysics as a bridge from Spenser to Milton.
Herbert sounds TS Eliotish-- it's about British gold , and the Gott, King, navy to protect it. Then most anglo escritores do--Schackaspeare and Milton included.
Tho a few romanticos cared not for the monarchy
craig
herbert's metaphysics
are rooted in reality
in the thomistic tradition
he makes reference to
the beautiful and the not so beautiful in life
and yes he leads right to the
lengthy speculations and
symbolic dilemmas of milton
j
from a historicl political point of view you are most likely correct in your assessments
however
i think it a little crass to dismiss the efforts and expressions
of great lyricists and poets merely because they wrote dring this or that cultural era
most all good poets transcend that
herbert stands as a great condenser of imagery
and a weaver of intricate song
more perhaps the last of the troubadours than voice of his era
and he directed his efforts in the context of a faith lived and struggled
i'm still getting some christmas jingles in my world
the desire of the heart
'come my way my truth...."
thanks all
jh
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