The Agony

     Philosophers have measured mountains,
Fathomed the depths of seas, of states, and kings,
Walked with a staff to heaven, and traced fountains:
     But there are two vast, spacious things
The which to measure it doth more behoove:
Yet few there are that sound them: Sin and Love.

     Who would know Sin, let him repair
Unto Mount Olivet; there shall he see
A man so wrung with pains that all his hair,
     His skin, his garments bloody be.
Sin is that press and vice, that forceth pain
To hunt his cruel food through every vein.

     Who knows not Love, let him assay
And taste that juice, which on the cross a pike
Did set again abroach; then let him say
     If ever he did taste the like.
Love is that liquor sweet and most divine
Which my God feels as blood; but I, as wine.

          George Herbert (1639)