Classic and Contemporary Poetry
MAN'S MEDLEY, by GEORGE HERBERT Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Hark, how the birds do sing Last Line: To turn his double pains to double praise. | ||||||||
HEARK, how the birds do sing, And woods do ring! All creatures have their joy, and man hath his. Yet, if we rightly measure, Mans joy and pleasure Rather hereafter then in present is. To this life, things of sense Make their pretence; In th' other, angels have a right by birth: Man ties them both alone, And makes them one, With th' one hand touching heav'n, with th' other earth. In soul he mounts and flies; In flesh he dies. He wears a stuffe whose thread is course and round, But trimm'd with curious lace, And should take place After the trimming, not the stuffe and ground. Not that he may not here Taste of the cheer; But as birds drink, and straight lift up their head, So must he sip, and think Of better drink He may attain to, after he is dead. But as his joyes are double, So is his trouble. He hath two winters, other things but one: Both frosts and thoughts do nip, And bite his lip; And he of all things fears two deaths alone. Yet ev'n the greatest griefs May be reliefs, Could he but take them right, and in their wayes. Happie is he whose heart Hath found the art To turn his double pains to double praise. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A TRUE HYMN [HYMNE] by GEORGE HERBERT CHURCH MONUMENTS by GEORGE HERBERT CHURCH-MUSICK [CHURCH MUSIC] by GEORGE HERBERT |
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