Here’s an excerpt:
Love
Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back,
Guiltie of dust and sinne.
But quick-ey’d Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,
If I lack’d any thing.
A guest, I answer’d, worthy to be here:
Love said, You shall be he.
I the unkinde, ungratefull? Ah my deare,
I cannot look on thee.
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
Who made the eyes but I?
Truth Lord, but I have marr’d them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.
And know you not, sayes Love, who bore the blame?
My deare, then I will serve.
You must sit down, sayes Love, and taste my meat:
So I did sit and eat.
George Herbert (1593-1633)
Dom Sebastian Moore, a gay Benedictine monk (and a lifelong celibate I think), was delighted that a young friend of his read nothing religious into this poem – he said he thought it was about “a good lay”. Most George Herbert fans would say it describes a forgiving Christ inviting the poet to a very homely communion table. I think many poems invite us in to make our own meanings.
