"The Flower" by George Herbert

[View this email on a browser]( [Forward to a friend]( [facebook-icon]( [tumblr-icon]( [twitter-icon]( September 8, 2018 [The Flower]( [George Herbert]( How fresh, O Lord, how sweet and clean Are Thy returns! ev’n as the flow’rs in Spring, To which, besides their own demean The late-past frosts tributes of pleasure bring; Grief melts away Like snow in May, As if there were no such cold thing. Who would have thought my shrivel’d heart Could have recover’d greennesse? It was gone Quite under ground; as flow’rs depart To see their mother-root, when they have blown, Where they together All the hard weather, Dead to the world, keep house unknown. These are Thy wonders, Lord of power, Killing and quickning, bringing down to Hell And up to Heaven in an houre; Making a chiming of a passing-bell. We say amisse This or that is; Thy word is all, if we could spell. O that I once past changing were, Fast in Thy Paradise, where no flower can wither; Many a Spring I shoot up fair, Offring at Heav’n, growing and groning thither, Nor doth my flower Want a Spring-showre, My sinnes and I joyning together. But while I grow in a straight line, Still upwards bent, as if Heav’n were mine own, Thy anger comes, and I decline: What frost to that? what pole is not the zone Where all things burn, When Thou dost turn, And the least frown of Thine is shown? And now in age I bud again, After so many deaths I live and write; I once more smell the dew and rain, And relish versing: O, my onely Light, It cannot be That I am he On whom Thy tempests fell all night. These are Thy wonders, Lord of love, To make us see we are but flow’rs that glide; Which when we once can find and prove, Thou hast a garden for us where to bide. Who would be more, Swelling through store, Forfeit their Paradise by their pride. [Like this on Facebook]( [Share via Twitter]( This poem is in the public domain. About This Poem “The Flower” was published in The Poetical Works of George Herbert (George Bell and Sons, 1886). [George Herbert]( George Herbert was born on April 3, 1593, in Montgomery, Wales. Considered one of the great metaphysical poets, he is the author of The Temple (Thom. Buck, and Roger Daniel, 1633). He died on March 1, 1633, in Bemerton, England. [more-at-poets]( Poetry by Herbert [The Temple]( (Penguin Classic, 2018) "The Sun Rising" by John Donne [read-more]( "Ode to the West Wind" by Percy Bysshe Shelley [read-more]( "Sheltered Garden" by H. D. [read-more]( September Guest Editor: Rigoberto González Thanks to Rigoberto González, author of Unpeopled Eden (Four Way Books, 2013), who curated Poem-a-Day this month. Read more about [González]( and our [guest editors for the year.]( [make a one-time donation]( [make a monthly donation]( [Small-Blue-RGB-poets.org-Logo]( Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit [Poets.org](. You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click [here](. © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038