Poem by George Herbert

Affliction (III)

My heart did heave, and there came forth, O God!
By that I knew that thou wast in the grief, 
To guide and govern it to my relief, 
          Making a scepter of the rod: 
              Hadst thou not had Thy part,         
Sure the unruly sigh had broke my heart. 
 
But since thy breath gave me both life and shape, 
Thou knowst my tallies; and when there's assign'd 
So much breath to a sigh, what's then behinde? 
          Or if some yeares with it escape,       
              The sigh then onely is 
A gale to bring me sooner to my blisse. 
 
Thy life on earth was grief, and thou art still 
Constant unto it, making it to be 
A point of honour now to grieve in me,       
          And in thy members suffer ill. 
              They who lament one crosse, 
Thou dying dayly, praise thee to thy losse.

1. Love (Immortal Love, authour of this great frame)
2. The Thanksgiving
3. Joseph's Coat
4. The Temper
5. Jordan

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