The Elixer

George Herbert (1593-1633)

 

Teach me, my God and King,

In all things thee to see,

And what I do in anything,

To do it as for thee:

 

Not rudely, as a beast,

To runne into an action;

But still to make thee prepossest,

And give it his perfection.

 

A man that looks on glasse,

On it may stay his eye;

Or, if he pleaseth, through it passe

And then the heav’n espie.

 

All may of thee partake:

Nothing can be so mean,

Which with his tincture (for thy sake)

Will not grow bright and clean.

 

A servant with this clause

Makes drudgerie divine:

Who sweeps a room as for thy laws,

Makes that and th’ action fine.

 

This is the famous stone

That turneth all to gold:

For that which God doth touch and own

Cannot for less be told.

 

A Little Poetry—Medieval apothecaries sought diligently after a mythical substance that would change base metals to precious gold. In George Herbert’s most famous poem, he employed this legendary elixer, or tincture, as a metaphysical conceit to describe the heavenly transformation of ‘drudgerie’ into divine service. It’s a poem I have dedicated to memory, a reminder to be deliberate in dedicating all my work to the Lord. “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.” Colossians 3:23-24.

(In literature, a conceit is an extended metaphor with a complex logic that governs a poetic passage or entire poem.)