I was going to post that Hardy, John. There is an alternative line 11 that goes: "you being ever consigned to existlessness" which I prefer. The sudden shift in meter in the last stanza works beautifully with the content, and there is a version I've seen printed (I don't know which is definitive) that indents in the fourth stanza all but the third line -- a nice visual effect.
Of George Herbert, everyone knows Easter Wings and the Love poems. This is a lesser known favorite:
JESU
JESU is in my heart, his sacred name
Is deeply carved there: but th’other week
A great affliction broke the little frame,
Ev’n all to pieces: which I went to seek:
And first I found the corner, where was J,
After, where ES, and next where U was graved,
When I had got these parcels, instantly
I sat me down to spell them, and perceived
That to my broken heart he was I ease you,
INDENTINDENTAnd to the whole is J E S U.
So charming and lovely! Herbert's play with the letters' sound and shape feels modern, but there is a long history of utilizing letters for mystical means. Also, my ex-boyfriend's last name is De Jesus, so it had extra meaning then.
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