Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AN OFFERING, by GEORGE HERBERT


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AN OFFERING, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Come, bring thy gift. If blessings were as slow
Last Line: And be my salvation.


COME, bring thy gift. If blessings were as slow
As mens returns, what would become of fools?
What hast thou there? a heart? but is it pure?
Search well, and see; for hearts have many holes.
Yet one pure heart is nothing to bestow:
In Christ two natures met to be thy cure.

O that within us hearts had propagation,
Since many gifts do challenge many hearts!
Yet one, if good, may title to a number;
And single things grow fruitfull by deserts.
In public judgments, one may be a nation,
And fence a plague, while others sleep and slumber.

But all I fear is lest thy heart displease,
As neither good, nor one; so oft divisions
Thy lusts have made, and not thy lusts alone:
Thy passions also have their set partitions.
These parcell out thy heart: recover these,
And thou mayst offer many gifts in one.

There is a balsome, or, indeed, a bloud,
Dropping from heav'n, which doth both cleanse and close
All sorts of wounds; of such strange force it is.
Seek out this All-heal, and seek no repose
Until thou finde, and use it to thy good.
Then bring thy gift; and let thy hymne be this:

Since my sadnesse
Into gladnesse,
Lord, thou dost convert,
O accept
What thou hast kept,
As thy due desert.

Had I many,
Had I any,
(For this heart is none,)
All were thine,
And none of mine,
Surely thine alone.

Yet thy favour
May give savour
To this poore oblation;
And it raise
To be thy praise,
And be my salvation.





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