Sir Philip Sidney suggests that poetry can ease the pain of our ‘death-dealing sins’ by providing the consolation of ‘never-leaving goodness’, which I’ve chosen to call ‘ever-present’.

In any case, it can provide us with ‘the fruit of comfort’ under all circumstances and I like the idea of ‘never-leaving goodness’, we need more of it.

Source: Sir Philip Sidney, An Apology for Poetry, quoted in John Drury,Music at Midnight: The Life and Poetry of George Herbert (London: Penguin Books, 2014), p. 19