George Herbert

I recently bought a beat-up little collection of the metaphysical poets from my local used book store. It has not let me down. One member of the collection, George Herbert, is first-rate. He wrote only theological poems, and did a darn good job of raising great questions and stating truths in profound and fresh ways. Check him out. And here's one for ya.

Marie Magdalene

WHEN blessed Marie wip’d her Saviours feet,
(Whose precepts she had trampled on before)
And wore them for a jewell on her head,
Shewing his steps should be the street,
Wherein she thenceforth evermore
With pensive humblenesse would live and tread

She being stain’d herself, why did she strive
To make him clean, who could not be defil’d?
Why kept she not her tears for her own faults,
And not his feet? Though we could dive
In tears like seas, our sinnes are pil’d
Deeper than they, in words, and works, and thoughts.

Deare soul, she knew who did vouchsafe and deigne
To bear her filth ; and that her sinnes did dash
Ev’n God himself ; wherefore she was not loth,
As she had brought wherewith to stain,
So to bring in wherewith to wash :
And yet in washing one, she washed both.