SINNE. (I)

LORD, with what care hast thou begirt us round !

Parents first season us : then schoolmasters
Deliver us to laws ; They send us bound
To rules of reason, holy messengers,

Pulpits and sundayes, sorrow dogging sinne,

Afflictions sorted, anguish of all sizes,
Fine nets and stratagems to catch us in, Bibles laid open, millions of surprises,

Blessings beforehand, tyes of gratefulnesse,

The sound of glorie ringing in our eares ;
Without, our shame ; within, our consciences ;
Angels and grace, eternall hopes and fears.

Yet all these fences and their whole aray
One cunning bosome-sinne blows quite away.

George Herbert

This poem could be written for Jack Boughton in Gilead