C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
To Keep a True Lent
By Robert Herrick (15911674)
I
The larder lean,
And clean
From fat of veals and sheep?
Of flesh, yet still
To fill
The platter high with fish?
Or ragged to go,
Or show
A downcast look and sour?
Thy sheaf of wheat,
And meat,
Unto the hungry soul.
From old debate
And hate;
To circumcise thy life.
To starve thy sin,
Not bin,—
And that’s to keep thy Lent.