Discipline by George Herbert (Christian poetry)

Here’s another poem Discipline by George Herbert, a metaphysical poet.

Discipline
By George Herbert

Throw away thy rod,
Throw away thy wrath;
O my God,
Take the gentle path.

For my heart’s desire
Unto thine is bent;
I aspire
To a full consent.

Not a word or look
I affect to own,
But by book,
And thy book alone.

Though I fail, I weep;
Though I halt in pace,
Yet I creep
To the throne of grace.

Then let wrath remove;
Love will do the deed:
For with love
Stony hearts will bleed.

Love is swift of foot;
Love’s a man of war,
And can shoot,
And can hit from far.

Who can ‘scape his bow?
That which wrought on thee,
Brought thee low,
Needs must work on me.

Throw away thy rod;
Though man frailties hath,
Thou art God:
Throw away thy wrath.

Previously, I’ve analyzed the structure of Herbert’s poems. Here’s a brief analysis of Discipline by George Herbert and a poem I wrote inspired by this poem’s structure.

The poem has eight verses. Each verse has four lines. The rhyme structure is aba’b’. Each line ends with a masculine foot (stressed). The feet are trochaic. The line lengths are four, four, two, and 4 feet long. What is the poem about? The poem is the thing, so read it several times!

Though I am no Herbert, still, going to the experts is a good way of improving one’s poetry. One difference is while all the lines of Hebert’s has the same number of beats and offbeats for the three and two foot lines, mine is more flexible on the offbeats.

Sword Dance
By Paul J. Chamberlain

Scripture and creation,
The double symphony,
God’s revelation
Sings in harmony.

“Scriptures” and “seen by”,
Joint sinewed to joint,
God can’t lie,
Whirls in counterpoint.

Wield the two-edged sword —
In stereo be heard;
As our Lord,
Deed must match the word.

As Christ is myth made fact,
David’s Lord and Son,
Speech and act —
The two shall become one.

If you see the need,
If you’ll take the chance,
Word and deed
Shall praise Him in the dance.

POETRY

“God is love, I John 4:16“ a gospel tract by Tom Cantor

Here is a PDF of a short gospel tract by Tom Cantor, “God is love, I John 4:16”, at his evangelistic ministry to Jewish people Israel Restoration Ministries

It’s short and worth reading, as it presents God is love, what that means, the gospel, and “You can respond to God’s love by receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior by praying: ‘Lord Jesus, save me – a lost sinner.’”

Sometimes people think that because God is love he will put up with anything, and we don’t have to do anything, and everyone goes to heaven. Other times, people ignore the truth that God is love by focusing on his power and authority. This gospel tract briefly gives a biblically balance understanding of God‘s love.

https://www.israelrestoration.org/pdf/GodisLoveCardENG.pdf

Tom Cantor usually teaches our adult Sunday school class and gives the sermon on the first, third, and any fifth Sunday of the month.

Love by George Herbert – Christian poetry and analysis

Love by George Herbert is another poem by this Christian metaphysical poet. “Love” (III) seems to be inspired by the Bible verse “God is love” (I John 4:8, 16). This previous post gave and linked to details of his life. Here is one of his more popular poems from his collection.”

Love (III)
By George Herbert

Love bade me welcome; Yet my soul drew back
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,
If I lacked any thing.

“A guest,” I answered, “worthy to be here.”
Love said, “You shall be he.”
“I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah my dear,
I cannot look on thee.”
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
“Who made the eyes but I?”

“Truth Lord, but I have marred them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.”
“And know you not,” says Love, “who bore the blame?”
“My dear, then I will serve.”
“You must sit down,” says Love, “and taste my meat.
So I did sit and eat.

Note how Herbert is able to make very good poetry while still being positive and gentle. So often the great plays and poems are tragedies and about tragic subjects. I think there is something Christian about redeeming tragedy.

Love by George Herbert, like all of the poems in “The Temple,” has a unique structure to the collection. It has three stanzas, though the content does not seem structured strictly on the stanzas. This is a flowing conversation back-and-forth between the author and Love (I John 4:16). The line lengths are 5 feet, 3 feet, repeated three times per stanza. Again, the feet are iambic (de-dum, de-dum), this is very popular in poetry especially from the Elizabethan time. The rhyme scheme is a b a’ b’ c c’. If we want to improve our poetry, looking at how the experts did it as one way.

Christian Poetry