ON MR. G. HERBERT'S BOOK INTITLED THE TEMPLE OF SACRED POEMS, SENT TO A GENTLEWOMAN
Richard Crashaw (1613?–49)
Know you fair, on what you look;
Expecting fire from your eyes,
To kindle this his sacrifice.
When your hands untie these strings,
Think you’have an angel by th’ wings.
One that gladly will be nigh,
To wait upon each morning sigh.
To flutter in the balmy air
Of your well-perfumed prayer.
These white plumes of his he’ll lend you,
Which every day to heaven will send you,
To take acquaintance of the sphere,
And all the smooth-fac’d kindred there.
And though Herbert’s name do owe
These devotions, fairest, know
That while I lay them on the shrine
Of your white hand, they are mine.
William Cowper said of them "I found in them a strain of piety which I could not but admire"
George Herbert himself said "they are a picture of spiritual conflicts between God and my soul before I could subject my will to Jesus, my Master". He was "desirous (thorow the Mercy of GOD) to please Him, for whom I am, and live, and who giveth mee my Desires and Performances".
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