To Keep a True Lent*

Robert Herrick (1591-1674)

Is this a Fast, to keep The larder lean? And clean From fat of veals and sheep? Is it to quit the dish Of flesh, yet still To fill The platter high with fish? Is it to fast an hour, Or ragg’d to go, Or show A down-cast look and sour? No: ‘tis a Fast to dole Thy sheaf of wheat And meat With the hungry soul. Is it to fast from strife And old debate, And hate; To circumcise thy life. To show a heart grief-rent; To starve thy sin, Not bin; And that’s to keep thy Lent.

*From: Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter (Walden, New York: Plough Publishing House, 2003), a volume that I am delighted to recommend.

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