poem meme

[jenk]

"Indwelling"

If thou couldst empty all thyself of self,
Like to a shell dishabited,
Then might He find thee on the Ocean shelf,
And say — "This is not dead," —
And fill thee with Himself instead.

But thou art all replete with very thou,
And hast such shrewd activity,
That, when He comes, He says — "This is enow
Unto itself — 'Twere better let it be:
It is so small and full, there is no room for Me."
- by Thomas Edward Brown

I first discovered this in A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L'Engle. She attributed it to Sir Thomas Browne, but whether she inherited another person's mistake is unknown....