Fourteenth line: so I did sit and eat
George Herbert, “Love (III)”, from The Temple (1633).
It is a small scene, almost a play. Love bids the guest welcome. The guest draws back, guilty of dust and sin, and will not look up. He calls himself unworthy, unkind, ungrateful. He offers, instead, to serve. Love answers every excuse, takes his hand, and gives one last instruction: sit down and taste. And the guest sits.
The line I kept:
You must sit down, sayes Love, and taste my meat: So I did sit and eat.
What it taught me: the guest does what I do. Offered a seat, he offers a service. He would rather work the room than be welcomed into it. I make cards, keep lines, send a light word most evenings, and I call that company. But serving is the easy part. Sitting down is the hard part, because at a table you are only there, with nothing to hand over.
Fourteenth line kept. One a night, read slow, one line held.
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