How should I praise thee, Lord! how should my rhymes <br />Gladly engrave thy love in steel, <br />If what my soul doth feel sometimes <br />My soul might ever feel! <br /> <br />Although there were some forty heav'ns, or more, <br />Sometimes I peer above them all; <br />Sometimes I hardly reach a score, <br />Sometimes to hell I fall. <br /> <br />O rack me not to such a vast extent; <br />Those distances belong to thee: <br />The world's too little for thy tent, <br />A grave too big for me. <br /> <br />Wilt thou meet arms with man, that thou dost stretch <br />A crum of dust from heav'n to hell? <br />Will great God measure with a wretch? <br />Shall he thy stature spell? <br /> <br />O let me, when thy roof my soul hath hid, <br />O let me roost and nestle there: <br />Then of a sinner thou art rid, <br />And I of hope and fear. <br /> <br />Yet take thy way; for sure thy way is best: <br />Stretch or contract me, thy poor debtor: <br />This is but tuning of my breast, <br />To make the music better. <br /> <br />Whether I fly with angels, fall with dust, <br />Thy hands made both, and I am there: <br />Thy power and love, my love and trust <br />Make one place ev'ry where.<br /><br />George Herbert<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-temper/
