AUTHOR RACHEL KELLY is the #thewordsdoctor. Through her classes at the Idler Academy and elsewhere, and her books, she aims to help people with depression heal themselves through words and poetry. In this short film, the first of four Melancholy Clinics, she recommends a poem to help people who are feeling stressed out.

Here we reproduce the poem, “Love” by George Herbert (1593 – 1632), in full.

Love bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back,
 
      Guilty of dust and sin.
 
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
 
      From my first entrance in,
 
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
         
      If I lack’d anything.
 
 
‘A guest,’ I answer’d, ‘worthy to be here:’
 
     Love said, ‘You shall be he.’
 
‘I, the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear,
 
      I cannot look on Thee.’
  
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
 
      ‘Who made the eyes but I?’
 
 
‘Truth, Lord; but I have marr’d them: let my shame
 
      Go where it doth deserve.’
 
‘And know you not,’ says Love, ‘Who bore the blame?’
  
      ‘My dear, then I will serve.’
 
‘You must sit down,’ says Love, ‘and taste my meat.’
 
      So I did sit and eat.