Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SIGHS AND GROANS, by GEORGE HERBERT


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

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First Line: O do not use me
Last Line: My god, relieve me!


O DO not use me
After my sinnes! look not on my desert,
But on thy glorie! then thou wilt reform,
And not refuse me: for thou onely art
The mightie God, but I a sillie worm.
O do not bruise me!

O do not urge me!
For what account can thy ill steward make?
I have abus'd thy stock, destroy'd thy woods,
Suckt all thy magazens: my head did ake,
Till it found out how to consume thy goods.
O do not scourge me!

O do not blind me!
I have deserv'd that an Egyptian night
Should thicken all my powers; because my lust
Hath still sow'd fig-leaves to exclude thy light:
But I am frailtie, and already dust:
O do not grinde me!

O do not fill me
With the turn'd viall of thy bitter wrath!
For thou hast other vessels full of blood,
A part whereof my Saviour empti'd hath,
Ev'n unto death: since he di'd for my good,
O do not kill me!

But O reprieve me!
For thou hast life and death at thy command;
Thou art both Judge and Saviour, Feast and Rod,
Cordiall and Corrosive: put not thy hand
Into the bitter box; but, O my God,
My God, relieve me!





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