Prayer. (I)

GEORGE HERBERT

Prayer the Churches banquet, Angels age,

     Gods breath in man returning to his birth,

     The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,

The Christian plummet sounding heav’n and earth;

Engine against th’ Almightie, sinners towre,

     Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,

     The six-daies world transposing in an houre,

A kinde of tune, which all things heare and fear;

Softnesse, and peace, and joy, and love, and  blisse,

     Exalted Manna, gladnesse of the best,

     Heaven in ordinarie, man well drest,

The Milkie way, the bird of Paradise,

     Church-bels beyond the starres heard, the souls bloud,

     The land of spices; something understood.

[Recited 17 April 2017]