Longing
The Cry of Desolation
The soul pours out its physical and spiritual anguish before God, crying from exhaustion and dizziness.
With sick and famished eyes, with buckling knees and weary bones, my cries, my groans, my sighs, my tears rise up to you — is there no end?1 My throat and soul are hoarse; my heart is withered like ground you curse. My thoughts spin and make me dizzy; Lord, I fall, yet I call.
The Fountain of Mercy
The soul acknowledges that all pity flows from God, who shares it with mothers, and pleads for God to hear and not scatter his prayer.
All pity flows from you. Mothers are kind because you are, and you give them a share: their infants suck from them, and they suck from you more freely.✦2 Heart of pity, hear!✦3 Lord of my soul, love of my mind, Bow down your ear!✦ Do not let the wind Scatter my words, and in the same act Your Name!4
The Furnace of Affliction
The soul calls God to witness its intense sufferings, griefs, and shames, and begs him to bow his ear and hear.
Look at the sorrows all around me! Take careful note of my furnace!✦5 Oh, what flames and heat abound! What griefs, what shames! Consider, Lord; Lord, bend your ear and hear!✦
The Ear That Made the Ear
The soul appeals to Christ's own suffering on the cross and to the logic that the Creator of the ear must surely hear.
Lord Jesus, you bowed your dying head on the tree: don't now be more dead to me!✦ Lord, hear! Shall he who made the ear not hear?✦
The Stirring Dust
The soul, aware of its lowly origin as dust, cries out that it stirs and creeps toward God, pleading for help.
Look—your dust is stirring; it moves, it creeps, it aims at you: will you put off helping me, your pile of dust, where every crumb says, Come?✦
The Locked Door and the Sinner's Plea
The soul questions whether God has abandoned all to their course and locked himself away, but wonders if a sinner's plea might still be the key.
Help belongs to you.✦ Have you left all things to their course, and laid the reins on the horse? Is everything locked?6 Does a sinner's plea have no key?✦7
The Humble Guest at the Table
The soul reflects that the world is God's book and his table is full, yet a meek look and humble guests find a place.
Indeed, the world is your book, where every thing has its page assigned. Yet a meek look has written between the lines.✦8 Your table is full, yet humble guests still find a place.✦9
The Child in Bitter Grief
The soul laments God's delay while it perishes, yet clings to the identity of being called God's child.
You delay while I die and fade to nothing; you reign and rule on high while I remain in bitter grief, yet I am still called your child.
The Hardness That Seems Unjust
The soul questions why God seems so hard, acknowledging that if sin were alive the suffering would be justified, but now sin is dead.
Lord, did you leave your throne not to bring relief? How can it be that you have grown so hard toward me? If sin were still alive, there would be good cause to bear this.10
The Promises That Speak
The soul declares that sin is dead and God's promises live, rebuking the soul and pouring its tears into God's heart.
But now sin is dead, and all your promises are alive and hold firm: that one has no head; these speak and rebuke, and pour my tears into your heart as their own.✦11
The Broken Heart's Tongues
The soul asks Jesus to hear its long-broken heart, which has become many tongues, and begs him to clear away his beggars today.
Lord Jesus, hear my heart, which has been broken for so long that every part has a tongue. Your beggars grow; clear them away today.12
The Dart of Love
The soul calls upon its love and sweetness, and by Christ's feet, begs him to remove his dart and heal its troubled breast.
My love, my sweetness, hear! By your feet, where my heart lies all year long, pluck out your dart and heal my troubled breast, which cries, which dies.13
Read the original English
With sick and famisht eyes, With doubling knees and weary bones, To thee my cries, To thee my grones, To thee my sighs, my tears ascend: No end?
My throat, my soul is hoarse; My heart is wither'd like a ground Which thou dost curse. My thoughts turn round, And make me giddie; Lord, I fall, Yet call.
From thee all pitie flows. Mothers are kinde, because thou art, And dost dispose To them a part: Their infants them; and they suck thee More free.
Bowels of pitie, heare! Lord of my soul, love of my minde, Bow down thine eare! Let not the winde Scatter my words, and in the same Thy Name!
Look on my sorrows round! Mark well my furnace! O what flames, What heats abound! What griefs, what shames! Consider, Lord; Lord, bow thine eare, And heare!
Lord Jesu, thou didst bow Thy dying head upon the tree: O be not now More dead to me! Lord heare! Shall he that made the eare, Not heare?
Behold, thy dust doth stirre; It moves, it creeps, it aims at thee: Wilt thou deferre To succour me, Thy pile of dust, wherein each crumme Sayes, Come?
To thee help appertains. Hast thou left all things to their course, And laid the reins Upon the horse? Is all lockt? hath a sinners plea No key?
Indeed the world's thy book, Where all things have their leaf assign'd: Yet a meek look Hath interlin'd. Thy board is full, yet humble guests Finde nests.
Thou tarriest, while I die, And fall to nothing: thou dost reigne, And rule on high, While I remain In bitter grief; yet am I stil'd Thy childe.
Lord, didst thou leave thy throne, Not to relieve? how can it be, That thou art grown Thus hard to me? Were sinne alive, good cause there were To bear.
But now both sinne is dead, And all thy promises live and bide: That wants his head; These speak and chide, And in thy bosome poure my tears, As theirs.
Lord Jesu, heare my heart, Which hath been broken now so long, That ev'ry part Hath got a tongue! Thy beggars grow; rid them away To day.
My love, my sweetnesse, heare! By these thy feet, at which my heart Lies all the yeare, Pluck out thy dart, And heal my troubled breast, which cryes, Which dyes.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Isa.49.15 — Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.
- ↩Col.3.12;Phil.1.8;Luke.1.78 — Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Phil.1.8 — For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. Luke.1.78 — because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from on high
- ↩Ps.31.2 — In you, O LORD, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame. In your righteousness, deliver me.
- ↩Isa.48.10 — See, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.
- ↩Ps.17.6 — I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God; incline your ear to me, hear my words.
- ↩John.19.30 — When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, 'It is finished,' and bowing his head he gave up his spirit.
- ↩Ps.94.9 — The one who planted the ear, does he not hear? The one who formed the eye, does he not see?
- ↩Gen.2.7;Ps.103.14 — Then the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Ps.103.14 — For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.
- ↩Ps.121.2 — My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.
- ↩Luke.18.13 — But the tax collector, standing far off, was not even willing to lift his eyes to heaven, but kept beating his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, the sinner.'
- ↩Matt.5.5 — Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
- ↩Matt.8.20;Luke.9.58 — And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have dens, and the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." Luke.9.58 — And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head."
- ↩Ps.56.8 — You have kept count of my wanderings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me.
Notes
- 1 ↩Source 'doubling knees' means knees that fold/buckle under weakness; rendered as 'buckling knees' for plain modern sense.
- 2 ↩Source ellipsis: 'Their infants them' supplies the verb from the next clause ('suck'). 'A part' means a portion of the pity/kindness that flows from God; 'more free' is adverbial ('more freely').
- 3 ↩Early modern 'bowels of pity' names the deep seat of compassion (biblical idiom); rendered as 'heart of pity' for contemporary clarity while keeping the poem's keyword 'pity'.
- 4 ↩'And in the same' means in that same scattering: if the wind disperses the speaker's prayer-words, it would also scatter God's Name carried in them.
- 5 ↩Herbert's 'furnace' is the biblical image of affliction as a refining fire (cf. the furnace of affliction); kept rather than paraphrased as mere pain.
- 6 ↩Source 'lockt' modernizes as 'locked'; closed off / sealed, continuing the petition that God not shut out the speaker.
- 7 ↩Source 'sinners plea' is early-modern possessive without apostrophe; rendered as 'sinner's plea'.
- 8 ↩leaf = page of a book; interlin'd = written between the lines (as marginal/interlinear addition), not merely 'underlined'.
- 9 ↩board = dining table / feast. nests kept for Herbert's concrete image of snug resting-places still found when the table seems full.
- 10 ↩"To bear" is objectless in the source; from the stanza and the next section (sin now dead), the implied object is God's present hardness/delay, not sin itself.
- 11 ↩Herbert's That/These contrast points back to sin (headless, dead) versus the living promises (which speak, chide, and pour the speaker's tears). 'Wants his head' means lacks its head—defeated, not merely missing a leader.
- 12 ↩beggars: the multiplying petitions/cries of the broken heart (each part now has a tongue), not literal street beggars; rid them away means relieve/answer them so the pleading stops.
- 13 ↩dart: the divine love-wound (Herbert’s recurrent image of being pierced by God); not a mere weapon, but the cause of both pain and longing.
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