I got me flowers to straw Thy way,
I got me boughs off many a tree;
But Thou wast up by break of day,
And brought’st Thy sweets along with Thee.
The sun arising in the East,
Though he give light, and th’ East perfume,
If they should offer to contest
With Thy arising, they presume.
Can there be any day but this,
Though many suns to shine endeavour?
We count three hundred, but we miss:
There is but one, and that one ever.
George Herbert (April 3. 1593 – March 1, 1633) was a Welsh-born poet and priest of the Church of England. Along with John Donne, he is considered a central figure of the Metaphysical Poets of the 17th century, and is widely recognized as one of Britain’s foremost devotional lyricists.