In case you're wondering who Francis Thompson is, he was a poet who lived during the late 1800's/early 1900's. At the end of every school year, I reread what I wrote during all of it and choose some excerpts to bind as a record. In doing so, I rediscovered him and thought to share excerpts of his poem "The Hound of Heaven" with you all. Or far better yet (if you can stomach some archaic English without the interpretations I've provided below), read the whole thing here. It's much better in whole, but I don't have time to work on it :-) and I couldn't find an already annoted version online.
I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind, and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him...
(For, though I knew His love Who followed
Yet I was sore adread [i.e. very worried]
Lest, having Him, I must have naught besides)...
Nigh and nigh [near and nearer] draws the chase,
With unperturbed pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy
And past those noised feet,
A Voice comes yet more fleet"
Lo, naught [nothing] contents thee, who content'st not [is not contented in] Me...
"Naked I wait thy Love's uplifted stroke!
My harness piece by piece Thou hast hewn from me,
And smitten me to my knee;
I am defenseless utterly.
Ah! Must Thou char the wood ere Thou canst limn [can write] with it?
Such is, what is to be?
The pulp so bitter, how shall taste the rind?
That Voice is round me like a bursting sea:
"Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee,
Save Me, save only Me?
All which I took from thee I did but take,
Not for thy harms [not to hurt you],
But just that thou might seek it in My arms.
All which thy childish mistake
Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home:
Rise, clasp My hand, and come!"
Is my gloom after all,
Shade of His hand, outstreached caressingly?"
Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,
I am He Whom thou seekest!"
1 comment:
Beautiful poetry. I love how well he captures the human heart and God's love. :)
How often, though, we are exactly like this? Fleeing the Gardener, that we might not be pruned! Running from His fatherly love, so that we can hold on to our worldly possessions for but another fleeting moment! Are we not blessed, though, that the Hound of Heaven does not give up the chase? When our headlong dash away from His love and mercy runs off a cliff, He is there to catch us. :)
I love where the poet says: "All which I took from thee I did but take,
Not for thy harms,
But just that thou might seek it in My arms."
He is whom we should truly seek!
Praise the Lord!
--Josiah C.
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