IGCSE Poem

12. 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.
Love or God welcomes the guest but the guest shrinks back conscious of
his unworthiness to be in God’s presence. God has been personified as
Love by the poet. Though written in the 17th century, the language
sounds surprisingly modern.
The guest is made of base material and this makes him feel he is not
worthy of being in God’s presence. He is also guilty of man’s first sin. The
Bible says that man is made of “dust” and goes back to being “dust” after
death.
But the all-
seeing God
notices the
guest
holding
back. After
making the
initial
entrance…
Love comes close to the guest and asks
in a sweet voice…
12Whether the guest needed
anything,
Enjambment?
??
Voice-Any
person
Voice feels
that he is
sinner and
unworthy of
LOVE.
Love got near
the man to
ask what is
wrong with
you.

13. ‘A guest,’ I answered, ‘worthy to be here.’
Love said, ‘You shall be he.’
‘I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah my dear,
I cannot look on thee.’
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
‘Who made the eyes but I?’
The guest answers that what
he lacks is the worthiness as
a guest to enter God’s
abode.
Love says that
Herbert is a
worthy guest.
The guest cannot
believe that he,
unworthy that he
is, can be
considered a
worthy guest. He
is unkind and
ungrateful.
The guest
says that his
eyes have
not the right
to gaze on
God. God is
superior.Attit
ude-Kind
,gentle
,sweet,gener
ous ,not
judging and
attentive.
God gently takes the guest’s hand
and replies with a smile.
He reminds him that the guest’s
eyes were fashioned by none
other than God.
Rhetorical
Question
A rhetorical question is asked
just for effect or to lay emphasis
on some point discussed when
no real answer is expected. A
rhetorical question may have an
obvious answer but the
questioner asks rhetorical
questions to lay emphasis to the
point.

14. ‘Truth Lord; but I have marred 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.
The guest agrees with
that but he defiled
them. For the shame
that he carries…
He deserves to go to
Hell.
God reminds him that he had taken
upon himself the sin of man and died
on the cross to expiate that sin. Jesus
dies on the cross to wash away the sin
of man.
The guest
then
offers to
serve at
God’s
feast.
God
forcefully
tells him
to sit and
partake of
the feast.
So the
guest sits
down and
eats.
Accepts God’s love.
Reference to the last Supper.