We should note, however, that in the Song of Songs overtly sexual language is construed as spiritual, while in Herbert a spiritual encounter has been construed by some as sexual. Towards the end of her remarks she notes in a general way that there is a 'suggestion' in the beginning and the end of the poem 'of a sexual encounter between an inhibited or impotent man and a gently loving, patient woman.' 4 She justifies this reading by seeing the Song of Songs in the Bible as a 'precedent' for what Herbert does. Just a few years later, in 1978, Greg Crossan, without reference to Mulder's piece, finds an extended 'sexual metaphor the opening stanza.' Growing slack is seen as impotence, and the speaker 'finally agrees to 'serve': serve the Church, serve the communion, yes, but also serve in a sexual capacity.' 3 Unfortunately, this statement misreads the action of the poem, in which the speaker does not agree to serve but rather insists that he serve rather than be served by his host.Ĭhana Bloch, writing in 1985, gives us an extended study of 'Love' (III) in terms of its biblical antecedents. The Poet as impotent lover, grown 'slack / From my first entrance in,' still insists on merit and serving so that, finally, God's Power forces him to partake of God's Love: 'You must sit down.' 2 In 'Love' (III), the pull of contending wills, that of God and Man, becomes a stasis.

Mulder, in a nine-page 1973 letter to Seventeenth-Century News, addresses both design and methodology in Herbert's Temple, and includes a glance at 'Love' (III). A review of some of the commentaries is instructive.

However, about forty years ago this approach through literary history began to give way to an approach through literary interpretation specifically by an analysis of the imagery of the poem as physical – indeed as sexual. Hutchinson would offer as a commentary on 'Love' (III) a simple comparison with a very similar passage in Southwell's Saint Peter's Complaint, without any argument pro or con with regard to the possibility that it was Herbert's source. Up until the middle of the last century an editor like Canon F.E.

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

Love 3 by george herbert