Yesterday I did some 'tidying' of books which of course quickly became reading them🙄
I picked one up, opened it at random and there was 'Fair daffodils we weep to see you haste away so soon' - it was a copy of Herrick's poetry that I forgot I had.
I'm not going to quote that poem cos it's one of those 'yeah they look nice but any day now they'll be dead and so will you'. Since it was in his religious phase, he didn't add the usual 'So since you're going to be as dead as an ex-daff soon anyway, darlin', how's about a shag?'😄
I liked this poem, it's along the same lines as the verse by Sedulius Scotus (840–860)
Techt do Róim,
mór saítho, becc torbai;
in Rí con-daigi i foss,
manim bera latt ní fhogbai.
A going to Rome:
A great trouble, a small profit!
The king who you seek here at home,
Unless you carry him with you, you will not find him.
and the Yiddish proverb: 'Nearer to the Synagogue, farther from God'
To Keep a True Lent - Robert Herrick
Is this a fast, to keep
The larder lean?
And clean
From fat of veals and sheep?
Is it to quit the dish
Of flesh, yet still
To fill
The platter high with fish?
Is it to fast an hour,
Or ragg'd to go,
Or show
A downcast look and sour?
No; 'tis a fast to dole
Thy sheaf of wheat,
And meat,
Unto the hungry soul.
It is to fast from strife,
From old debate
And hate;
To circumcise thy life.
To show a heart grief-rent;
To starve thy sin,
Not bin;
And that's to keep thy Lent.