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Lyric Poem · Love

A Hymn to God the Father

by Ben Jonson

1Hear me, O God!

2A broken heart

3Is my best part.

4Use still thy rod,

5That I may prove

6Therein thy Love.

7If thou hadst not

8Been stern to me,

9But left me free,

10I had forgot

11Myself and thee.

12For sin's so sweet,

13As minds ill-bent

14Rarely repent,

15Until they meet

16Their punishment.

17Who more can crave

18Than thou hast done?

19That gav'st a Son,

20To free a slave,

21First made of nought;

22With all since bought.

23Sin, Death, and Hell

24His glorious name

25Quite overcame,

26Yet I rebel

27And slight the same.

28But I'll come in

29Before my loss

30Me farther toss,

31As sure to win

32Under His cross.

Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.

“A Hymn to God the Father” by Ben Jonson — quilloak.com/poems/a-hymn-to-god-the-father-jonson

Quick facts

Poem
A Hymn to God the Father
Poet
Ben Jonson
Length
32 lines
Form
Lyric Poem
Themes
Love, Peace, Death & Loss

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape
32 lines · 6 stanzas of 5–6 lines
Line length
Mostly 4-syllable lines (dimeter length).
The poem’s silhouette — approximate syllables per line, measured from the text above. Even bars mean a measured line; ragged bars mean the poem sets its own widths.

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Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record
Ben Jonson1572–1637
Source record
PoetryDBA Hymn to God the Father by ben-jonson, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision
Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record
Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint
SHA-256 448d0bff15f8929e…
Editorial handling
Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
Jurisdiction-specific, never a worldwide claimRights policyReport a text or rights issue
Lyric PoemLovePeaceDeath & Loss

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