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.

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