Lent

"Is this a fast, to keep
The larder lean?
And clean
From fat of
veals, and sheep?
Is it to quit the dish
of flesh, yet still
To
fill
The platter high with fish?
Is it to fast an hour,
Or ragged
to go,
Or show a downcast look, and sour?
"No: 'tis a fast, to dole
Thy sheaf of wheat, and meat
Unto the hungry soul.
It is to fast
from strife,
From old debate
And hate;
To circumcise thy life.
"To show a heart grief-rent;
To starve thy sin,
not bin;
And
that's to keep thy Lent."

- Robert Herrick, a seventeenth century poet