Bitter-sweet
Bitter-sweet Devotion
The speaker addresses God, acknowledging His loving discipline, and resolves to mirror that same paradoxical response of lament and love.
Oh, my dear angry Lord! Since you love, yet strike; cast down, yet still give help—surely I'll do the same. I'll complain, yet praise; I'll mourn, and approve: And all my sour-sweet days I'll lament, and love.1
Read the original English
Ah my deare angrie Lord! Since thou dost love, yet strike; Cast down, yet help afford; Sure I will do the like.
I will complain, yet praise; I will bewail, approve: And all my sowre-sweet dayes I will lament, and love.
Notes
- 1 ↩Source sowre-sweet kept as sour-sweet to preserve Herbert's compound; the chapter title Bitter-sweet names the same paradox.
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