A Dialogue-Anthem (Poem II)
Alas,
poor
Death!
Where
is
thy
glory?
Where
is
thy
famous
force,
thy
ancient
sting?
Alas,
poor
mortal,
void
of
story!
Go
spell
and
read
how
I
have
killed
thy
King.
Poor
Death!
And
who
was
hurt
thereby?
Thy
curse
being
laid
on
Him
makes
thee
accurst.
Let
losers
talk,
yet
thou
shalt
die;
These
arms
shall
crush
thee.
Spare
not,
do
thy
worst.
I
shall
be
one
day
better
than
before;
Thou
so
much
worse,
that
thou
shalt
be
no
more.
George Herbert
George Herbert, (born April 3, 1593, Montgomery Castle, Wales—died March 1, 1633, Bemerton, Wiltshire, Eng.), English religious poet, a major metaphysical poet, notable for the purity and effectiveness of his choice of words. A younger brother of Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury, a notable secular metaphysical poet, George in 1610 sent his mother for New Year’s two sonnets on the theme that the love of God is a fitter subject for verse than the love of woman, a foreshadowing of his poetic and vocational bent.