Love bade me welcome
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.
"A guest," I answer'd, "worthy to be here";
Love said, "You shall be he."
"I, the unkind, the ungrateful? ah my dear,
I cannot look on thee."
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
"Who made the eyes but I?"
"Truth, Lord, but I have marr'd 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.
Commentary
This poem may have a strong appeal even to those who, like me, are not practitioners of religion but who are not entirely averse thereto, and sometimes wish that they could find some of what is so attractively described in its verses.
In the first verse Love is presented as a person of unknown gender, appearance or occupation to be imagined as you will. This is not the love laid down as an obligation in the Christian Ten Commandments (love thy neighbour); still less is it the passionate love that may entail so much struggle and potential hardship. It is a soothing love of welcome, an observant, encouraging, solicitous, hospitable love that provides exactly what the narrator needs (acceptance, anticipation and painless removal of feelings of unworthiness) and demands nothing more than that the narrator sit down and partake of a meal of love itself! What love could better that?
In the course of the second and third verses it becomes clear that this Love is in fact the christian god, a vision of a version of Christ.
In this poem Love leads the narrator to self-acceptance. “My dear, then I will serve.” ‘Serve’ is used interestingly here: more, in my opinion, in the sense of ‘to be sufficient, good enough’ than in the more obvious one.
The metrical scheme (iambic pentameters alternating with lines of three feet of two syllables) allows for enjambement (but without creating long phrases) and also for short, stand-alone questions and statements. Excellent for the variations required by dialogue.
I know of two choral settings of this poem from the twentieth century: by Vaughan Williams in his Five Mystical Songs and by John Tavener in a standalone version. The latter is exceptionally good and contributes a good deal to my appreciation of this beautiful poem.
— Gerry Rowe
Minstrels Links
Poem #391, The Pulley – George Herbert
Poem #567, Easter Wings – George Herbert
Poem #546, The Sick Rose – William Blake
Poem #771, The Divine Image – William Blake
Poem #26, Jerusalem – William Blake
Poem #66, The Tyger – William Blake
Poem #97, The Fly – William Blake
Poem #368, Auguries of Innocence – William Blake
Poem #330, A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning – John Donne
Poem #384, Song – John Donne
Poem #403, A Lame Beggar – John Donne
Poem #465, The Sun Rising – John Donne
Poem #796, Death Be Not Proud (Holy Sonnets: X) – John Donne
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From the Wondering Minstrels mailing list, 1999–2008.
Scott Hyslop · 10 April 2003
Hi,
I am just responding to your posting on “Love Bade Me Welcome”
There is also a stunning setting of this text by David Hurd - published by Selah Publishing House in New York. It is set as a fairly simple motet for mixed voices.
Thanks!
Scott Hyslop
BIGBLOCK1570 · 4 May 2004
Did you know Madonna also sampled this poem for her BEDTIME stories cd. It’s called, “love tried to welcome me.” I was reciting this poem, and a devoted fan of hers accused me of plagarism of her music.
joey haber
Nicholas KERR · 31 October 2004
I wanted the text of this poem for one of my congregation. (I’m not only a practitioner of the Christian religion, but also a Minister.) Google led me straight to this site.
As a practititioner I should like to make a couple of comments. For me the poem is quite specifically about the unwillingness of some to approach the Holy Communion for fear of unworthiness. Gerry is right in identifying “Love” with Christ, tho I’m not quite sure what he means by “a version of Christ”, and in identifying this love as acceptance. However, I have to take issue with his labeling of the Ten Commandments as Christian; they are of course Jewish in origin. Nor do they make any reference to love! “Love thy neighbor as thyself” is from the “Holiness Code” of the book of Leviticus, cited by Jesus as second-greatest (after “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart …”) when challenged to name the most important of the commandments.
The meal is clearly intended to be the Holy Communion, that Christian meal based on the Last Supper, the Passover that Jesus ate with his disciples on the eve of his crucifixion. This death is referred to obliquely in the question, “And know you not … who bore the blame?”
I think that Gerry reads more than is valid into the use of the word “serve”. Love is the host. It is unthinkable that the host should serve, let alone a guest. Nevertheless, the guest offers to serve, feeling unworthy to sit at table. Love, however, insists: “You must sit down … and taste my meat”, surely a reference to “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; “ /John 6:54./ Love taking over the service at the meal is a clear reference to another saying of Jesus: “For the Son of Man [Jesus’ phrase referring to himself] came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” /Mark 10:45
Nicholas Kerr
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Mitzi Andersen · 23 July 2005
Is your copy of the text of Herbert’s ‘Love bade me welcome’, as reproduced here, subject to copyright? I’d like to use it in a free newsletter. M.Andersen
Technogirl · 30 December 2006
I was raised Catholic, studied theology but I am non-practicing. I see something further in this poem. In Christianity, there are many references to God being in his people - in their souls and giving them life. I believe this poem is also about our fear to Love one another. So many times, one person will offer Love, and another is afraid to accept it - like the person in this poem. It also speaks to the giver of Love to show patience and acceptance. In the end, both will be rewarded. Love is a gift from God to us and no matter which side we’re on, we must be patient and open with ourselves and the other people in our lives.
Alina.
Peter Green · 9 March 2007
I think that part of the power of this masterpiece comes from the occasional word whose face, so to speak, doesn’t quite fit - just as the persona of the poem feels as if s/he doesn’t quite fit in the gathering/banquet where s/he feels a trespasser, the uninvited. Maybe “my dear” sounds like a strangely patronising way to address God to some ears. And why “Truth, Lord” rather than, “True, Lord”? Again, it strikes a slightly odd note to some modern ears. I’m not enough of an expert to know if these apparent anomalies would have seemed such to seventeenth century ears.
But then, there are those who argue that “Dear” is playing on a subliminal relationship with the French word for God, “Dieu” - if you pronounce “Dieu” as if it were an English word, it would not be difficult to come up with a pronunciation that’s about the same as “dear”.
I also have to admit that “Truth, Lord” injects an element of finality that “True, Lord” does not. It’s a brilliant intensification delivered with an incredible delicacy - the moment when the scales start to drop from the would-be guest’s eyes.
CS Lewis comments that it’s easy for people to profoundly misunderstand Herbert’s use of the term, “unkind” - which has the modern sense of being cruel or unfeeling. He says that this is to overlook the older sense of the word which suggests a failure of family duty - not behaving as somebody of the same “kind” - not reciprocating the duty that a child might owe to the most loving and giving of parents.
Peter Green
Kaye Livermore · 18 April 2007
Hi,
I’d like to put in my two cents’ worth in favor of the double meaning of “serve.” The idea of “serve” as “suffice” seems to me fully in keeping with the kinds of puns that appear in Elizabethan poetry – particularly the poetry of devotion. My church choir is singing John Hurd’s setting of “Love Bade Me Welcome,” and the soon-to-be-consecrated Bishop of Southern Ohio has chosen it to be sung at his consecration service. I find it profoundly moving. Like “The Symposium,” it’s also about a dinner party!
Kaye Livermore
JOSEPH FANT · 5 September 2007
As regarding the comment by Gerry, I want to invite you to partake of the Love that is offered in this poem. I slightly disagree with Mr. Kerr, but I do see where he is coming from. The scripture clearly teaches that Christ offers His love free for all to partake in. I am not talking about a religion, but solely a relationship with the God of the universe. Ps. 34:8 says “O taste and see that the Lord is good.” He is good and is offering his salvation to you to accept by “sitting at His table” and receiving Him as your Lord. Exodus clearly states that eating the fat (flesh) and drinking the blood of a sacrifice are totally prohibited. When Christ mentioned this in His statement referred to by Kerr, he was drawing a picture of what was going to happen on the cross and how to accept that by faith as the only means of salvation that results in a ticket to heaven. I pray that you will accept this free gift that makes even the most scarred criminal white as snow.