[820] Love bade me welcome

Guest poem submitted by Gerry Rowe, <gerirowe@>:

Love bade me welcome, yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-ey'd Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lack'd anything.

"A guest," I answer'd, "worthy to be here";
Love said, "You shall be he."
"I, the unkind, the ungrateful? ah my dear,
I cannot look on thee."
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
"Who made the eyes but I?"

"Truth, Lord, but I have marr'd them; let my shame
Go where it doth deserve."
"And know you not," says Love, "who bore the blame?"
"My dear, then I will serve."
"You must sit down," says Love, "and taste my meat."
So I did sit and eat.

	-- George Herbert

This poem may have a strong appeal even to those who, like me, are not
practitioners of religion but who are not entirely averse thereto, and
sometimes wish that they could find some of what is so attractively
described in its verses.

In the first verse Love is presented as a person of unknown gender,
appearance or occupation to be imagined as you will. This is not the love
laid down as an obligation in the Christian Ten Commandments (love thy
neighbour); still less is it the passionate love that may entail so much
struggle and potential hardship. It is a soothing love of welcome, an
observant, encouraging, solicitous, hospitable love that provides exactly
what the narrator needs (acceptance, anticipation and painless removal of
feelings of unworthiness) and demands nothing more than that the narrator
sit down and partake of a meal of love itself! What love could better that?

In the course of the second and third verses it becomes clear that this Love
is in fact the christian god, a vision of a version of Christ.

In this poem Love leads the narrator to self-acceptance. "My dear, then I
will serve." 'Serve' is used interestingly here: more, in my opinion, in the
sense of 'to be sufficient, good enough' than in the more obvious one.

The metrical scheme (iambic pentameters alternating with lines of three feet
of two syllables) allows for enjambement (but without creating long phrases)
and also for short, stand-alone questions and statements. Excellent for the
variations required by dialogue.

I know of two choral settings of this poem from the twentieth century: by
Vaughan Williams in his Five Mystical Songs and by John Tavener in a
standalone version. The latter is exceptionally good and contributes a good
deal to my appreciation of this beautiful poem.

Gerry Rowe.

[Minstrels Links]

Poem #391, The Pulley  -- George Herbert
Poem #567, Easter Wings -- George Herbert
Poem #546, The Sick Rose -- William Blake
Poem #771, The Divine Image -- William Blake
Poem #26, Jerusalem  -- William Blake
Poem #66, The Tyger  -- William Blake
Poem #97, The Fly  -- William Blake
Poem #368, Auguries of Innocence  -- William Blake
Poem #330, A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning  -- John Donne
Poem #384, Song  -- John Donne
Poem #403, A Lame Beggar  -- John Donne
Poem #465, The Sun Rising  -- John Donne
Poem #796, Death Be Not Proud (Holy Sonnets: X) -- John Donne

From: "Scott Hyslop" <shyslop@>

Hi,

I am just responding to your posting on "Love Bade Me Welcome"

There is also a stunning setting of this text by David Hurd - published
by Selah Publishing House in New York. It is set as a fairly simple
motet for mixed voices.

Thanks!
Scott Hyslop

From: BIGBLOCK1570@

Did you know Madonna also sampled this poem for her BEDTIME stories cd.  It's 
called, "love tried to welcome me."   I was reciting this poem, and a devoted 
fan of hers accused me of plagarism of her music. 

joey haber

From: Nicholas KERR <nik@>

I wanted the text of this poem for one of my congregation. (I'm not only 
a practitioner of the Christian religion, but also a Minister.) Google 
led me straight to this site.

As a practititioner I should like to make a couple of comments. For me 
the poem is quite specifically about the unwillingness of some to 
approach the Holy Communion for fear of unworthiness. Gerry is right in 
identifying "Love" with Christ, tho I'm not quite sure what he means by 
"a version of Christ", and in identifying this love as acceptance. 
However, I have to take issue with his labeling of the Ten Commandments 
as Christian; they are of course Jewish in origin. Nor do they make any 
reference to love! "Love thy neighbor as thyself" is from the "Holiness 
Code" of the book of Leviticus, cited by Jesus as second-greatest (after 
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart ...") when 
challenged to name the most important of the commandments.

The meal is clearly intended to be the Holy Communion, that Christian 
meal based on the Last Supper, the Passover that Jesus ate with his 
disciples on the eve of his crucifixion. This death is referred to 
obliquely in the question, "And know you not ... who bore the blame?"

I think that Gerry reads more than is valid into the use of the word 
"serve". Love is the host. It is unthinkable that the host should serve, 
let alone a guest. Nevertheless, the guest offers to serve, feeling 
unworthy to sit at table. Love, however, insists: "You must sit down ... 
and taste my meat", surely a reference to "Those who eat my flesh and 
drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last 
day; " /John 6:54./ Love taking over the service at the meal is a clear 
reference to another saying of Jesus: "For the Son of Man [Jesus' phrase 
referring to himself] came not to be served but to serve, and to give 
his life a ransom for many." /Mark 10:45

Nicholas Kerr
/

From: "Mitzi Andersen" <andermc@>

Is your copy of the text of Herbert's 'Love bade me welcome', as
reproduced here, subject to copyright? I'd like to use it in a free
newsletter.
M.Andersen