How should I praise thee, Lord! how should my rhymes Gladly engrave thy love in steel, If what my soul doth feel sometimes, My soul might ever feel! Although there were some forty heavens, or more, Sometimes I peer above them all; Sometimes I hardly reach a score; Sometimes to hell I fall. O rack me not to such a vast extent; Those distances belong to thee: The world's too little for thy tent, A grave too big for me. Wilt thou meet arms with man, that thou dost stretch A crumb of dust from heaven to hell? Will great God measure with a wretch? Shall he thy stature spell? O let me, when thy roof my soul hath hid, O let me roost and nestle there; Then of a sinner thou art rid, And I of hope and fear. Yet take thy way; for, sure, the way is best: Stretch of contract me, thy poor debtor: This is but tuning of my breast, To make the music better. Whether I fly with angels, fall with dust, Thy hands made both, and I am there. Thy power and love, my love and trust, Make one place everywhere. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A GUY I KNOW ON 47TH AND COTTAGE by CLARENCE MAJOR BONNYBELL: THE GRAY SPHEX by EDGAR LEE MASTERS THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES: CHORUS by AESCHYLUS THE HEART OF THE TREE by HENRY CUYLER BUNNER HOLIDAY AT HAMPTON COURT by JOHN DAVIDSON AEOLIAN HARP (2) by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM GREENES FUNERALLS: SONNET 9 by RICHARD BARNFIELD |