Vertue
The Passing of All Sweetness
Three apostrophes to day, rose, and spring each celebrate a beautiful creature and then pronounce its inevitable death.
Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright—the marriage of the earth and sky: the dew will weep your fall tonight; for you must die.1 Sweet rose, whose color, fierce and brilliant, Makes the hasty gazer wipe his eye: Your root is always in its grave, And you must die.2 Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses, a box where sweets are packed tight; my music shows you have your endings, and all must die.3
The Soul That Outlasts the World
In stark contrast to the perishable beauties, a virtuous soul endures and lives most fully when everything else is consumed.
Only a sweet and virtuous soul, like seasoned timber, never gives way; but though the whole world turn to coal, then it lives most of all.4
Read the original English
SWeet day, so cool, so calm, so bright, The bridall of the earth and skie: The dew shall weep thy fall to night; For thou must die.
Sweet rose, whose hue angrie and brave Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye: Thy root is ever in its grave, And thou must die.
Sweet spring, full of sweet dayes and roses, A box where sweets compacted lie; My musick shows ye have your closes, And all must die.
Onely a sweet and vertuous soul, Like season'd timber, never gives; But though the whole world turn to coal, Then chiefly lives.
Notes
- 1 ↩Source 'bridall' is Early Modern spelling of 'bridal' (the wedding-joining of earth and sky at daybreak/daylight), not 'bridle'.
- 2 ↩Early Modern 'angrie and brave' of a rose's hue: vivid/fierce red and splendid/showy, not primarily moral anger or courage.
- 3 ↩Herbert's 'closes' is musical: cadences or final phrase-endings. The line means spring's sweetness has its built-in conclusions, just as music does—hence the turn to 'And all must die.'
- 4 ↩Source 'never gives' is the older sense 'never yields/gives way' (as seasoned timber under stress), not 'never bestows'.
The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations companion
A prayer for every moment, already on your phone
Chosen Portion puts a curated historic prayer in front of you each day — so the words are there before the moment arrives.
Chosen Portion is the digital descendant of the carried prayer book: the short daily prayers this collection preserves, delivered one a day to your pocket.
- One short, memorable prayer delivered daily — build your repertoire a card at a time
- Prayers matched to real situations: fear, gratitude, decisions, grief, sleep
- Save favourites into your personal pocket collection you can open anywhere