Commentary

It is important to appreciate that, in George Herbert's time, the word 'friend' applied not only to your closest acquaintances but more especially to your immediate and indeed wider family. So it implied somone whose best interests you would always have at heart, and would seek to defend and assist in adversity. For Herbert, this is undoubtedly how God should be treated, but all too often is not.

This poem is one of many instances in 'The Temple' of a conversation between a speaker and his God - clearly, Herbert feels that this is a device that allows him to express thoughts and emotions most forcefully, as for example in 'The Collar'. The repeated refrain in the last line of each stanza is another device he employs frequently, often with subtle but important variations as we see here.

Kindness can be defined as being friendly, generous, and considerate, and in taking it as the title for this poem Herbert sets out to consider how well the relationship of the poem's speaker with his God stacks up against these qualities. He sets out his stall in the very first line - you have to work at friendships, and always consider the effect your words and actions might have on others, especially those close to you. Your own desires and intentions should always take into account those of your friends.

And you must not just be a fair-weather friend, says the speaker in the second stanza. You must stand up for those you hold dear and challenge anyone who tries to demean them or blacken their name. This applies especially to his relationship with God and perhaps he had in mind the gospel story of how, after Jesus had been arrested and taken for trial, instead of defending him St. Peter denied all knowledge of him.

The speaker takes this admonition further in the third stanza - even if friends behave badly towards you, you should indulge them, although in doing so you might well be overlooking or even ignoring the needs of others. And this despite the fact that you know full well what course God expects you to take, and that your actions let him down. In the final line of this stanza, the 'would' and 'could' of the previous stanzas has now become the much stronger 'cannot', stressing the dilemma in which the poem's speaker finds himself.

In the fourth stanza, the bonds of friendship are extended even to self-sacrifice - the speaker recognises that what he feels obliged to do may quite possibly be against his own best interests. But, despite this, he recognises that all too frequently he fails to do what he knows would satisfy his God, or be what God wants him to be - there is no consistency in the way he responds to his fellows and his maker .

But in the final stanza the speaker recognises that it is only God's self-sacrifice through the crucifixion that can redeem him and offer forgiveness of his sins. This supreme act of redemption must be firmly recorded and always remembered. And yet, even though he acknowledges this, he pays his God less regard than even his enemies, let alone his friends.

And by continuing the use of italics, Herbert enfolds the line into what he says must be written 'in brasse', emphasising that this too must never be forgotten. As so often in his verses, with the substitution of 'foes' for 'friend' the meaning of the entire poem is encapsulated in the last line - the speaker concludes that he repays his deserving God with more 'unkindnesse' than he shows to any mortal man.