My heart did heave, and there came forth, 'O God'! <br />By that I knew that thou wast in the grief, <br />To guide and govern it to my relief, <br />Making a sceptre of the rod: <br />Hadst thou not had thy part, <br />Sure the unruly sigh had broke my heart. <br /> <br />But since thy breath gave me both life and shape, <br />Thou know'st my tallies; and when there's assigned <br />So much breath to a sigh, what's then behind? <br />Or if some years with it escape, <br />The sigh then only is <br />A gale to bring me sooner to my bliss. <br /> <br />Thy life on earth was grief, and thou art still <br />Constant unto it, making it to be <br />A point of honour now to grieve in me, <br />And in thy members suffer ill. <br />They who lament one cross, <br />Thou dying daily, praise thee to thy loss.<br /><br />George Herbert<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/affliction-iii/
