cool, thanks wow. i'd actually read that same excerpt, and was disappointed that it (1) didn't specify whether Herbert's "The Altar" was written as a literal interpretation of the Altar Poem style (okay, granted, it's unlikely) or if the Altar Poem indeed took its name from Herbert's offering (that's a pun, sadly) and (2) the site didn't provide the poem itself.

it hadn't occured to me to simply google "George Herbert The Altar" until i read your post; and voila:


1 A broken ALTAR, Lord, thy servant rears,
2 Made of a heart and cemented with tears;
3 Whose parts are as thy hand did frame;
4 No workman's tool hath touch'd the same.
5 A HEART alone
6 Is such a stone,
7 As nothing but
8 Thy pow'r doth cut.
9 Wherefore each part
10 Of my hard heart
11 Meets in this frame
12 To praise thy name.
13 That if I chance to hold my peace,
14 These stones to praise thee may not cease.
15 Oh, let thy blessed SACRIFICE be mine,
16 And sanctify this ALTAR to be thine.


(darnit, i can't figure out how to switch to plain text so that the format won't be lost... HEEELLLLLP, tsuwm!)