Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-dnltx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T06:22:44.479Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

14 - Repentance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2016

Helen Wilcox
Affiliation:
Bangor University
Get access

Summary

Lord, I confesse my sinne is great;

Great is my sinne: Oh! gently treat

With thy quick flow'r, thy momentanie bloom;

Whose life still pressing

Is one undressing,

A steadie aiming at a tombe.

Mans age is two houres work, or three:

Each day doth round about us see.

Thus are we to delights: but we are all

To sorrows old,

If life be told

From what life feeleth, Adams fall.

O let thy height of mercie then

Compassionate short-breathed men.

Cut me not off for my most foul transgression:

I do confesse

My foolishnesse;

My God, accept of my confession.

Sweeten at length this bitter bowl,

Which thou hast pour'd into my soul;

Thy wormwood turn to health, windes to fair weather:

For if thou stay,

I and this day,

As we did rise, we die together.

When thou for sinne rebukest man,

Forthwith he waxeth wo and wan:

Bitternesse fills our bowels; all our hearts

Pine, and decay,

And drop away,

And carrie with them th’ other parts.

But thou wilt sinne and grief destroy;

That so the broken bones may joy,

And tune together in a well-set song,

Full of his praises,

Who dead men raises.

Fractures well cur'd make us more strong.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2016

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Repentance
  • George Herbert
  • Edited by Helen Wilcox, Bangor University
  • Book: George Herbert: 100 Poems
  • Online publication: 05 May 2016
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316584910.015
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Repentance
  • George Herbert
  • Edited by Helen Wilcox, Bangor University
  • Book: George Herbert: 100 Poems
  • Online publication: 05 May 2016
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316584910.015
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Repentance
  • George Herbert
  • Edited by Helen Wilcox, Bangor University
  • Book: George Herbert: 100 Poems
  • Online publication: 05 May 2016
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316584910.015
Available formats
×