,illustration3 ,cover art               
,illustration3 ,front end papers        
,,the ,,hound ,,of ,,heaven             
,illustration     ,frontispiece3        
,when she lit her glimmering tapers     
,round the day's dead sanctities  ,page 
#eb    ,illustration3 ,title page       
,,the ,,hound ,,of ,,heaven  ,by        
,,francis ,,thompson     ,,with         
,,illustrations ,,by  ,,stella          
,,langdale     ,,new ,,york  ,,dodd1    
,,mead ,,and ,,company  #aibf           
,,copyright1 #aibb1  ,,by ,,dodd1 ,,mead
 ,,and ,,company1 ,,inc4   ,,printed    
,,in ,,the ,u4,s4,a4     ,,introduction 
,the ,rev4 ,mark ,j4 ,mc,neal1 ,s4 ,j41 
who was one of the successors of        
,lafcadio ,hearn in the chair of        
,english ,literature at the ,tokyo      
,imperial ,university1 in an interesting
 article recounts the following incident
 of his experience in that institution4 
,i was seated on the examining board    
with ,professor ,ichikawa1 the dean of  
the ,english department444 ,there       

entered the room a student whom ,i      
recognized as among the best in the     
class1 a sharp young chap with big      
,mongolian eyes1 and one who had never  
to my knowledge given any hint of even a
 leaning toward ,christianity4  ,i      
remembered1 however1 that his thesis    
submitted for a degree had been a study 
of ,francis ,thompson4  ,following the  
usual custom1 ,i began to question him  
about his thesis4  ',why did you choose 
,thompson8'  ',well1 he is quite a      
famous poet4'  ',what kind of poet is   
he8'  ',we might call him a mystic4'    
',is he a mystic of the orthodox sort1  
like ,cynewulf or ,crashaw2 or an       
unorthodox mystic1 like ,blake or       
,shelley8'  ',oh1 he's orthodox4'       
',well1 now1 what do you consider his   
greatest production8'  ',why1 ,i should 
say ,the ,hound of ,heaven4  ',well1    
what on earth does ,thompson mean by    
that ,hound8'  ',he means ,god4'  ',but 
is not that a rather irreverent way for 
,thompson to be talking about ,god1     

calling ,him a hound8  ,what does he    
mean by comparing ,god to a hound8'     
',well1 he means the pursuit of ,god4'  
',oh1 ,i see1 ,thompson is pursuing     
,god1 is he8'  ',oh1 no4  ,he is rather 
running away from ,god4'  ',well1 then1 
,god is pursuing ,thompson1 is that it8'
  ',yes1 that's it4'  ,illustration3    
,titanic glooms of chasmd fears  ,page  
#de  ',but1 see here2 according to      
,thompson's belief ,god is everywhere1  
isn't ,he8'  ',yes4'  ',well1 then1 how 
can ,god be going after ,thompson8  ,is 
it a physical pursuit8'  ',no4  ,it is a
 moral pursuit4'  ',a moral pursuit6    
,what's that8  ,what is ,god after8'    
',he is after ,thompson's love4'  ,and  
then we1 the ,jesuit and the ,buddhist1 
began to follow the windings and        
turnings of that wondrous poem1 the most
 mystic and spiritual thing that has    
been written since ,st4 ,teresa laid    
down her pen4  ,what the other member of
 the examining board thought of it all  
,i never heard4 ,but ,i think ,i        

acquired a satisfactory answer to that  
question so often put to me3 ,can the   
,japanese really grasp a spiritual      
truth8  ,do they really get at the      
meaning of ,christianity8  ,this1 of a  
race that has produced more martyrs than
 any other nation since the fall of     
,rome and that kept the ,faith for two  
centuries without a visible symbol or   
document6  ,the incident supplies matter
 for other conclusions more germane to  
the subject of this essay4  ,the late   
,bert ,leston ,taylor1 a journalist     
whose journalism had a literary facet of
 critical brilliance1 once declared that
 he could not perceive the excellence of
 ,francis ,thompson's poetry4 ,when     
someone suggested that it might be that 
he was not spiritual enough1 the retort 
was laconic and crushing1 ,or1 perhaps1 
not ecclesiastical enough4  ,like most  
good retorts ,taylor's had more wit than
 truth4  ,he was obsessed by the notion1
 prevalent among a certain class of     
literary critics1 that ,francis         

,thompson's fame was the artificially   
stimulated applause of a ,catholic      
coterie1 whose enthusiasm could hardly  
be shared by readers with no particular 
curiosity about ,catholic ideas or modes
 of religion4  ,it was probably this    
obsession which prompted that able      
critic1 ,mr4 ,h4 ,d4 ,traill1 to write  
to ,mr4 ,wilfrid ,meynell when the      
,hound of ,heaven first appeared3 ,i    
quite agree with you in thinking him a  
remarkable poet1 but1 if he is ever to  
become other than a 'poet's poet' or    
'critic's poet'--if indeed it is worth  
anyone's ambition to be other than      
that--it will only be by working in a   
different manner4  ,a 'public' to       
appreciate the ',hound of ,heaven' is to
 me inconceivable4  ,mr4 ,william       
,archer1 an experienced judge of popular
 likes1 was of the same opinion4  ,yet1 
,francis ,thompson's biographer tells   
us1 in the three years after ,thompson's
 death the separate edition of the      
',hound of ,heaven' sold fifty thousand 

copies2 and1 apart from anthologies1    
many more thousands were sold of the    
books containing it4  ,when the ,hound  
of ,heaven is selected for study1 and   
explained in words of one syllable1 by a
 young ,japanese student in the ,tokyo  
,imperial ,university almost thirty     
years after the poem was published1 one 
can hardly maintain that it calls for   
certain ecclesiastical affiliations     
before it can be understood and felt1 or
 that its public is necessarily         
circumscribed4  ,it must be owned indeed
 that ,francis ,thompson was a puzzle to
 his contemporaries of the nineties4    
,he paid the usual penalty of vaulting  
originality4  ,the decade is famous for 
its bold experiments and shining        
successes in the art of poetry4  ,one   
might expect that a public1 grown       
accustomed to exquisitely wrought       
novelties and eager to extend them a    
welcome1 would have been preordained to 
recognize and hail the genius of        
,thompson4  ,but it was not so4  ,the   

estheticism of the nineties1 for all its
 sweet and fragile flowers1 was rooted  
in the dark passions of the flesh4  ,its
 language was the language of death and 
despair and annihilation and the        
,epicurean need of exhausting the       
hedonistic possibilities of life ere the
 final engulfing in darkness and        
silence4 ,when the speech of ,thompson1 
laden with religion and spirituality and
 ,christian mystery1 broke with golden  
turbulence upon the world of the        
nineties1 the critics were abashed and  
knew not what to think of it4 ,the      
effect was somewhat like that produced  
by ,attwater1 in ,stevenson's ,the      
,ebb-,tide1 when he began suddenly to   
discourse on ,divine ,grace to the      
amazement of ,herrick and his crew of   
scoundrels from the stolen ,farallone4  
,oh1 exclaimed the unspeakable ,huish1  
when they had recovered breath1 ,oh1    
look 'ere1 turn down the lights at once1
 and the ,band of ',ope will oblige6    
,this ain't a spiritual sance4  ,it had 

something akin to the madness of poor   
,christopher ,smart when he fell into   
the habit of dropping on his knees and  
praying in the crowded ,london streets4 
,there was incongruity1 verging on the  
indecent1 in this intrusion of religion 
into art1 as if an archangel were to    
attend an afternoon tea in ,mayfair or  
an absinthe session in a ,bohemian cafe4
 ,it was1 in ,dr4 ,johnson's phrase1 an 
unnecessary deviation from the usual    
modes of the world which struck the     
world dumb4  ,the poetry of ,francis    
,thompson appeared in three small       
volumes3 ,poems1 published in #ahic2    
,sister ,songs1 in #ahie2 and ,new      
,poems1 in #ahig4  ,the first of these  
volumes contained the ,hound of ,heaven2
 though it staggered reviewers at large1
 they yielded dubious and carefully     
measured praise and waited for          
developments4  ,the pack was unleashed  
and the hue-and-cry raised on the coming
 of ,sister ,songs and ,new ,poems4     
,andrew ,lang and ,mr4 ,arthur ,symons  

led the chorus of disapproval4  ,it is  
amusing to read now that ,francis       
,thompson's faults are fundamental4     
,though he uses the treasure of the     
,temple1 he is not a religious poet4    
,the note of a true spiritual passion   
never once sounds in his book4  ,another
 critic of the poet declares that       
nothing could be stronger than his      
language1 nothing weaker than the       
impression it leaves on the mind4  ,it  
is like a dictionary of obsolete        
,english suffering from a severe fit of 
delirium tremens4  ,a prominent literary
 periodical saw1 in the attempt to foist
 ,thompson on the public as a genuine   
poet1 a sectarian effort to undermine   
the literary press of ,england4  ,in the
 course of a year the sale of ,sister   
,songs amounted to #cdi copies4  ,the   
,new ,poems fared worse2 its sale1 never
 large1 practically ceased a few years  
after its appearance1 three copies being
 sold during the first six months of    
#aijb4  ,illustration3 ,across the      

margent of the world ,i fled  ,page #dg 
,and all this despite strong            
recommendations from fastidious         
quarters4 ,george ,meredith's           
recognition was instantaneous and       
unreserved4 ,henley's was accompanied by
 reproofs4  ,mr4 ,richard ,le,gallienne 
was enthusiastic4  ,mr4 ,william ,archer
 said to a friend1 ,this is not work    
which can possibly be popular in the    
wide sense2 but it is work that will be 
read and treasured centuries hence by   
those who really care for poetry4  ,and 
he wrote to ,thompson1 ,i assure you no 
conceivable reaction can wipe out or    
overlay such work as yours4  ,it is     
firm-based on the rock of absolute      
beauty2 and this ,i say all the more    
confidently because it does not happen  
to appeal to my own speculative1 or even
 my own literary1 prejudices4  ,the most
 extravagant admirer of all1 and the one
 who will probably turn out to have come
 nearer the mark than any of ,francis   
,thompson's contemporaries1 was ,mr4 ,j4

 ,l4 ,garvin1 the well known ,english   
leader-writer in politics and           
literature4  ,after the publication of  
his second volume1 he wrote in the      
,english ,bookman1 ,march #ahig1 when it
 became clear that the ',hound of       
,heaven' and ',sister ,songs' should be 
read together as a strict lyrical       
sequence1 there was no longer any       
comparison possible except the highest1 
the inevitable comparison with even     
,shakespeare's ,sonnets4 ,the ,sonnets  
are the greatest soliloquy in           
literature4  ,the ',hound of ,heaven'   
and ',sister ,songs' are the second     
greatest2 and there is no third4  ,in   
each case it is rather consciousness    
imaged in the magic mirror of poetry    
than explicit autobiography4444  ,even  
with the greatest pages of ',sister     
,songs' sounding in one's ears1 one is  
sometimes tempted to think the ',hound  
of ,heaven' ,mr4 ,thompson's high-water 
mark for unimaginable beauty and        
tremendous import--if we do damnably    

iterate ,mr4 ,thompson's tremendousness1
 we cannot help it1 he thrusts the word 
upon us4  ,we do not think we forget any
 of the splendid things of an ,english  
anthology when we say that the ',hound  
of ,heaven' seems to us1 on the whole1  
the most wonderful lyric 7if we consider
 ',sister ,songs' as a sequence of      
lyrics7 in the language4  ,it fingers   
all the stops of the spirit1 and we hear
 now a thrilling and dolorous note of   
doom and now the quiring of the spheres 
and now the very pipes of ,pan1 but     
under all the still sad music of        
humanity4  ,it is the return of the     
nineteenth century to ,thomas           
,kempis4444  ,the regal air1 the        
prophetic ardors1 the apocalyptic       
vision1 ,mr4 ,thompson has them all4  ,a
 rarer1 more intense1 more strictly     
predestinate genius has never been known
 to poetry4  ,to many this will seem the
 simple delirium of over-emphasis4  ,the
 writer signs for those others1 nowise  
ashamed1 who range after ,shakespeare's 

very ,sonnets the poetry of a living    
poet1 ,francis ,thompson4  ,we do not   
associate ,mr4 ,arnold ,bennett with any
 of the ideas in religion or literature 
which supplied impulse to ,francis      
,thompson4  ,it is a surprise of the    
first magnitude to find him carried away
 into the rapture of prophecy by the    
,sister ,songs4  ,i declare1 he says in 
an article appearing in ,july1 #ahie1   
that for three days after this book     
appeared ,i read nothing else4  ,i went 
about repeating snatches of it--snatches
 such as--    ',the innocent moon1 that 
nothing does but shine1   ,moves all the
 labouring surges of the world4'  ,my   
belief is that ,francis ,thompson has a 
richer natural genius1 a finer poetical 
equipment1 than any poet save           
,shakespeare4  ,show me the divinest    
glories of ,shelley and ,keats1 even of 
,tennyson1 who wrote the ',lotus        
,eaters' and the songs in the           
',princess1' and ,i think ,i can match  
them all out of this one book1 this     

little book that can be bought at an    
ordinary bookseller's shop for an       
ordinary prosaic crown4  ,i fear that in
 thus extolling ,francis ,thompson's    
work1 ,i am grossly outraging the canons
 of criticism4  ,for the man is alive1  
he gets up of a morning like common     
mortals1 not improbably he eats bacon   
for breakfast2 and every critic with an 
atom of discretion knows that a poet    
must not be called great until he is    
dead or very old4  ,well1 please        
yourself what you think4  ,but1 in time 
to come1 don't say ,i didn't tell you4  
,a whole generation of men has passed   
away since these words appeared2 but    
they do not seem to be so fantastic and 
whimsical now as they seemed to be then4
  ,illustration3 ,i said to dawn3 ,be   
sudden  ,page #dg  ,it can scarcely be  
claimed that the prophecies of          
,meredith1 ,mr4 ,garvin1 and ,mr4       
,arnold ,bennett were of the kind which 
ultimately assures the event4  ,the     
reading-world dipped curiously into the 

pages about which there was so much     
conflict of opinion2 it was startled and
 bewildered by a novel and difficult    
form of verse2 and finally it agreed    
with the majority of critics that it was
 mostly nonsense--too ,catholic to be   
catholic4  ,the poems sold badly1 the   
',hound of ,heaven' faring best4  ,it is
 a common mark of genius to be ahead of 
its time4  ,even ,thompson's            
coreligionists were cold4  ,indeed1 it  
may be said they were the coldest4  ,if 
the general reading-public of the       
nineties suspected ,thompson of being a 
,victorian reactionary of ultra-montane 
mould1 the ,catholic public feared him  
for his art4  ,it was a wild unfettered 
thing which took strange liberties with 
,catholic pieties and could not be      
trusted to run in divine grooves4  ,one 
can afford to extenuate the attitude of 
reserve4  ,it was a period when         
brilliant heterodoxies and flaunting    
decadence were in the air4  ,the fact   
is1 that critics and public delivered   

,thompson over to the ,catholics2 and   
the ,catholics would have nothing to do 
with him4  ,canon ,sheehan could write  
of ,thompson in #ahih3  ,only two       
,catholics--literary ,catholics--have   
noticed this surprising                 
genius--,coventry ,patmore and ,wilfrid 
,meynell4  ,the vast bulk of our        
coreligionists have not even heard his  
name1 although it is already bruited    
amongst the ,immortals2 and the great   
,catholic poet1 for whose advent we have
 been straining our vision1 has passed  
beneath our eyes1 sung his immortal     
songs1 and vanished4  ,this was written 
almost ten years before ,thompson died1 
but after his resolve to write no more  
poetry4  ,it is easily within the       
probabilities that1 small as was        
,thompson's audience during his         
lifetime1 it would have been still      
smaller but for the extraneous interest 
excited by the strange story of his     
life4  ,he was born on ,december #af1   
#ahei1 in ,preston1 ,lancashire1 whence 

he went at the age of eleven to ,ushaw  
,college1 a ,catholic boarding school   
for boys4  ,this is the college where   
,lafcadio ,hearn received his education2
 he had left the school a year or two   
before young ,thompson's arrival4 ,both 
boys were designed for the priesthood4  
,hearn lost his faith then or shortly   
afterwards3 ,thompson's irregular habits
 of dreamy abstraction rendered him     
unfit for a sacerdotal career4  ,when he
 had completed his course at college1   
where he had distinguished himself in   
,english composition and attained       
respectable standing in the classics1   
his father1 a hard-working physician1   
entered the lad1 now eighteen1 as a     
student of medicine in ,owen ,college1  
,manchester4  ,the ,thompson family had 
moved from ,preston to                  
,ashton-under-,lyne1 where proximity to 
,manchester made it possible for the    
young medical student to spend his      
nights at home4  ,francis was of the    
silent and secretive sort where he could

 not hope to find intelligent sympathy4 
,this1 and some cloudy compromise with  
his sense of filial dutifulness1 will   
perhaps explain why he passed six years 
as a student of medicine without any    
serious purpose of becoming a physician 
and without informing his father of his 
disinclination4 ,three examinations and 
three failures at intervals of a year   
were necessary to convince the father of
 the true state of affairs4  ,stern     
measures were adopted2 and1 although the
 consequences were pitifully tragical1  
it is hard to blame the father of       
,francis4  ,how are we to discover the  
extraordinary seal in a case that       
requires special and extraordinary      
treatment8  ,francis was twenty-four    
years old with no more idea than a      
child's of how life is planned on       
practical lines of prosperity4  ,the    
senior ,thompson thought it time for him
 to learn and issued orders to find     
employment of some remunerative kind4   
,accordingly during the next two years  

,francis served indifferently for brief 
periods as a clerk in the shop of a     
maker of surgical instruments and as a  
canvasser of an encyclopedia4  ,both    
experiments in the art of making a      
living were failures1 increasing        
paternal dissatisfaction4  ,the         
desperate young man then enlisted in the
 army1 and after a few weeks' of        
drilling was rejected on the score of   
physical weakness4  ,illustration3    ,i
 knew how the clouds arise1   ,spumd of 
the wild sea-snortings  ,page #ea       
,during these shiftless and unhappy     
years as a listless medical student and 
laggard apprentice the poet's chief     
solace was the public library of        
,manchester4  ,in his daily absences    
from home his misery suggested another  
solace of a sinister kind4  ,after a    
severe illness during his second year of
 medicine his mother1 says his          
biographer1 presented him with a copy of
 ,de ,quincey's ,confessions of an      
,opium ,eater4  ,it is incredible that a

 helluo librorum1 like ,thompson1 should
 have reached the age of twenty without 
ever having read a book which is one of 
the first to attract every bright       
school-boy4  ,this would be particularly
 true of a school-boy who lived near    
,manchester1 ,de ,quincey's own town4   
,but the evidence seems to be against   
probabilities4  ,thompson succumbed     
completely to the influence of the great
 genius whose temper and circumstances  
of life were singularly like his own4   
,experiments in laudanum were made and  
habits contracted which accentuated a   
natural unfitness to wrestle with the   
practical problems of getting on and    
rendered family intercourse drearier    
than ever4  ,in #ahhe1 when he was      
twenty-six years old1 ,francis decided  
to leave home4  ,after a week in        
,manchester he requested and received   
from his father the price of a railway  
ticket for ,london4  ,the trip to the   
vast and strange city must have been    
made with only the vaguest of plans for 

the future4  ,the despairing youth      
seemed to have no other purpose than to 
rid his father of his vexatious         
presence4  ,there were friends in       
,london1 on one of whom ,francis was    
directed to call for a weekly allowance 
from home4  ,but a temperamental        
reluctance kept the young man away from 
those who could help him1 and even the  
weekly allowance after a while came to  
be unclaimed4  ,the rough1 cyclonic     
forces of the huge city caught this     
helpless child of a man's years in the  
full swing of their blind sweep and     
played sad tricks with him4  ,in a      
period extending over nearly three years
 ,francis ,thompson led the life of a   
vagrant in the streets and alleys4  ,he 
made one or two brave essays at regular 
work of the most commonplace character1 
but without success4 ,the worn copies of
 ,aeschylus and ,blake in the pockets of
 this ragged and gaunt roustabout       
contained no useful hints for the       
difficulties of the peculiar situation2 

its harshness could be transmuted into  
temporary and blessed oblivion by a drug
 whenever the means for purchase could  
be acquired4  ,the ,guildhall ,library  
was much frequented until shabbiness was
 excluded by the policeman4  ,this      
outcast poet1 approaching thirty years  
of age1 was at various times a          
bootblack1 a newsboy1 a vendor of       
matches1 a nocturnal denizen of wharves 
and lounger on the benches of           
city-parks4  ,his cough-racked frame was
 the exposed target of cold and rain and
 winds4  ,he became used to hunger4 ,at 
one time a six-pence1 for holding a     
horse1 was his only earnings for a week4
  ,it was while he was aimlessly roaming
 the streets one night almost delirious 
from starvation that a prosperous       
shoe-merchant1 benevolently engaged in  
religious rescue-work1 came across      
,thompson1 and1 struck by the           
incongruity of his gentle speech1       
induced him to accept employment in his 
shop4  ,but one cannot allow business to

 suffer on account of an inveterate     
blunderer1 even though the blunderer    
wear wings and has endeared himself to  
the family4  ,mr4 ,mc,master1 kindly    
,anglican lay-missionary1 who deserves  
grateful remembrance for recognizing and
 temporarily helping merit under the    
most deceptive disguise1 was obliged    
much against his inclination to dismiss 
,francis and to allow him to fall back  
into the pit of squalor and vagabondage4
  ,but the few months of reprieve had   
supplied ,thompson with the impulse to  
write4  ,shortly after he was dropped   
from the ,mc,master establishment ,mr4  
,wilfrid ,meynell1 the editor of ,merry 
,england1 a ,catholic magazine1 received
 the following letter3 ,feb4 #bcrd1     
'#hg--;,dear ,sir1--,in enclosing the   
accompanying article for your           
inspection1 ,i must ask pardon for the  
soiled state of the manuscript4  ,it is 
due1 not to slovenliness1 but to the    
strange places and circumstances under  
which it has been written4  ,for me1 no 

less than ,parolles1 the dirty nurse    
experience has something fouled4  ,i    
enclose stamped envelope for a reply1   
since ,i do not desire the return of the
 manuscript1 regarding your judgment of 
its worthlessness as quite final4  ,i   
can hardly expect that where my prose   
fails my verse will succeed4            
,nevertheless1 on the principle of ',yet
 will ,i try the last1' ,i have added a 
few specimens of it1 with the off chance
 that one may be less poor than the     
rest4 ,apologizing very sincerely for   
any intrusion on your valuable time1 ,i 
remain yours with little hope1  ,francis
 ,thompson4  ,kindly address your       
rejection to the ,charing ,cross ,post  
,office4   ,illustration3    ,naked ,i  
wait ,thy love's uplifted stroke6       
44444 smitten me to my knee2   ,i am    
defenceless utterly   ,page #ee   ,the  
unpromising aspect of the manuscript1   
thus introduced1 was the occasion of    
editorial neglect for some months4      
,when at last ,mr4 ,meynell gave it his 

attention he was electrified into       
action4  ,he wrote to the address given 
by ,thompson4  ,the letter was returned 
from the dead-letter office after many  
days4  ,then he published one of the    
poems mentioned in the letter1 ,the     
,passion of ,mary1 in the hope that the 
author would disclose his whereabouts4  
,the plan succeeded and brought a letter
 from ,thompson with a new address4     
,mr4 ,meynell tried to waylay him at the
 new address1 a chemist's shop in ,drury
 ,lane1 but with characteristic         
shiftlessness the poet forgot to call   
there for possible letters4  ,but the   
seller of drugs finally established     
communications between the editor and   
the poet1 and one day1 more than a year 
after ,thompson's first literary venture
 had been sent1 he visited the office of
 ,merry ,england4  ,mr4 ,everard        
,meynell1 the poet's biographer1 thus   
describes the entrance of the poet into 
his father's sanctum4  ,my father was   
told that ,mr4 ,thompson wished to see  

him4  ',show him up1' he said1 and was  
left alone4  ,then the door opened1 and 
a strange hand was thrust in4  ,the door
 closed1 but ,thompson had not entered4 
,again it opened1 again it shut4  ,at   
the third attempt a waif of a man came  
in4 ,no such figure had been looked for2
 more ragged and unkempt than the       
average beggar1 with no shirt beneath   
his coat and bare feet in broken shoes1 
he found my father at a loss for words4 
',you must have had access to many books
 when you wrote that essay1' was what he
 said4 ',that1' said ,thompson1 his     
shyness at once replaced by an acerbity 
that afterwards became one of the most  
familiar of his never-to-be-resented    
mannerisms1 'that is precisely where the
 essay fails4  ,i had no books by me at 
the time save ,aeschylus and ,blake4'   
,there was little to be done for him at 
that interview save the extraction of a 
promise to call again4  ,he made none of
 the confidences characteristic of a man
 seeking sympathy and alms4  ,he was    

secretive and with no eagerness for     
plans for his benefit1 and refused the  
offer of a small weekly sum that would  
enable him to sleep in a bed and sit at 
a table4  ,by patience and delicately   
offered kindnesses ,mr4 and ,mrs4       
,meynell at length won the difficult    
privilege of helping the shy1 nervous1  
high-strung spirit wandering in pain1   
hunger and exile amid the indecencies of
 extreme penury in a great city4  ,they 
were helped by the friendly sympathy and
 care of ,premonstratensian and         
,franciscan monks4 ,thompson had        
sounded1 and become familiar with1 the  
depths of social degradation in all its 
external aspects of sordidness4  ,the   
most extraordinary part of his singular 
experience is that he affords a striking
 instance of the triumph of soul and    
mind over beleaguering circumstance4    
,the nightmare of his environment failed
 to subdue him4 ,he preserved his       
spiritual sensitiveness1 and literary   
ideals of a most exalted kind1 through  

the most depressing and demoralizing    
experiences4 ,the following passage in  
that first essay offered to ,mr4        
,meynell1 entitled ,paganism3 ,old and  
,new1 a vindication of ,christian over  
pagan ideals in art1 shows the rich1    
colorful tone of mind of one who could  
walk unstained among the world's        
impurities4  ,bring back then1 ,i say1  
in conclusion1 even the best age of     
,paganism1 and you smite beauty on the  
cheek4  ,but you cannot bring back the  
best age of ,paganism1 the age when     
,paganism was a faith4  ,none will again
 behold ,apollo in the forefront of the 
morning1 or see ,aphrodite in the upper 
air loose the long lustre of her golden 
locks4  ,but you may bring back--dii    
avertant omen--the ,paganism of the days
 of ,pliny1 and ,statius1 and ,juvenal2 
of much philosophy1 and little belief2  
of superb villas and superb taste2 of   
banquets for the palate in the shape of 
cookery1 and banquets for the eye in the
 shape of art2 of poetry singing dead   

songs on dead themes with the most      
polished and artistic vocalisation2 of  
everything most polished1 from the      
manners to the marble floors2 of vice   
carefully drained out of sight1 and     
large fountains of virtue springing in  
the open air2--in one word1 a most      
shining ,paganism indeed--as putrescence
 also shines4  ,unlike ,george ,gissing 
and so many others who had to wade to   
celebrity through sloughs of bitter     
destitution1 ,francis ,thompson felt no 
inclination to capitalize his expert    
knowledge of back streets and alleys for
 profit and the morbid entertainment of 
the curious4  ,his single failing in    
yielding to the attraction of an        
insidious drug seemed to be impotent to 
affect his high admirations and his     
clear perceptions in the regions of     
honor and religion4  ,illustration3     
,yea1 faileth now even dream   ,the     
dreamer  ,page #ee  ,it is surely one of
 the literary glories of a distinguished
 family that ,mr4 and ,mrs4 ,meynell    

succeeded in helping ,thompson to       
emancipate himself from the enslavement 
of a tyrannic habit4  ,his poetic genius
 began to flower in the new liberty4    
,for the next ten years interest in his 
poetry and literary friends and         
connections1 few and select1 made his   
life comparatively happy4  ,but he      
maintained a large measure of           
independence to the last4  ,that he was 
never ungrateful to those who befriended
 him1 his poems are ample proof4  ,but  
in ,london he always had his own        
lodgings in a cheap but respectable     
quarter of the city4  ,his unpunctual   
and preoccupied manner sometimes created
 small distresses for his devoted       
friends to relieve4  ,during the last   
ten years of his life he wrote little   
poetry4  ,his vitality1 never vigorous1 
was ebbing and unequal to the demands of
 inspired verse4  ,but during these     
years of decline he wrote much golden   
prose4  ,he was a regular and highly    
valued contributor to the ,academy1 the 

,athenaeum1 the ,nation1 and the ,daily 
,chronicle4  ,one can hardly fail to be 
impressed by the mere industry of a     
writer of reputed slack habits of work4 
,the published volume of his selected   
essays is literary criticism1 as learned
 and allusive as ,matthew ,arnold's1 and
 as nicely poised1 with the advantage of
 being poised in more rarified heights  
than ,arnold's wings could hope to      
scale4  ,in this book is his classic and
 most wonderful essay on ,shelley1      
written before his strength began to    
flag1 in which prose seems to be carried
 off its feet1 as it were1 in a very    
storm of poetic impulse4  ,the published
 essays are not a tithe of ,thompson's  
writings for the press4  ,moreover1 we  
have a study of ,blessed ,john de la    
,salle1 a little volume on ,health and  
,holiness1 and a large ,life of ,st4    
,ignatius ,loyola1 none of them         
suggesting even remotely the plantigrade
 writing of the mechanical hack4        
,during the last year of his life1 when 

consumption had almost completely       
undermined resistance1 his old habit    
reasserted its empire4 ,but it was not  
for long1 and can hardly be said to have
 hastened the end1 which came on        
,november #ac1 #aijg1 in the ,hospital  
of ,st4 ,john and ,st4 ,elizabeth4  ,he 
was buried in ,st4 ,mary's ,cemetery1   
,kensal ,green1 and on his coffin were  
roses from ,george ,meredith's garden1  
with the poet-novelist's message3 ,a    
true poet1 one of the small band4  ,the 
,hound of ,heaven has been called the   
greatest ode in the ,english language4  
,such was the contemporary verdict of   
some of the most respected critics of   
the time1 and the conviction of its     
justness deepens with the passing of    
years4  ,recall the writers of great    
odes1 ,milton1 ,dryden1 ,pope1 ,gray1   
,collins1 ,wordsworth1 ,keats1 ,shelley1
 ,coleridge1--the best they have done   
will not outstare the ,hound of ,heaven4
  ,where shall we find its equal for    
exaltation of mood that knows no fatigue

 from the first word to the last8  ,the 
motion of angelic hosts must be like the
 movement of this ode1 combining in some
 marvellous and mysterious way the      
swiftness of lightning with the stately 
progress of a pageant white with the    
blinding white light of an awful        
,presence4  ,the note of modernness is  
the quality which is most likely to     
mislead us in forecasting favorably the 
durability of contemporary poetry1      
appealing as it does to so many personal
 issues irrelevant to the standards of  
immortal art4  ,this is precisely the   
note which is least conspicuous in the  
,hound of ,heaven4  ,the poem might have
 been written in the days of            
,shakespeare1 or1 in a different speech1
 by ,dante or ,calderon4  ,the ,rev4    
,francis ,p4 ,le,buffe1 ,s4 ,j41 has    
written an interesting book on the      
,hound of ,heaven1 pointing out the     
analogy between the poem and the psalms 
of ,david2 and another ,jesuit1 the late
 ,rev4 ,j4 ,f4 ,x4 ,o',connor1 in a     

published ,study of the poem1 says that 
in it ,francis ,thompson seems to sing1 
in verse1 the thought of ,st4 ,ignatius 
in the spiritual exercises1--the thought
 of ,st4 ,paul in the tender1 insistent 
love of ,christ for the soul1 and the   
yearning of ,christ for that soul which 
ever runs after creatures1 till the love
 of ,christ wakens in it a love of its  
,god1 which dims and deadens all love of
 creatures except through love for ,him4
  ,this was the love of ,st4 ,paul1 of  
,st4 ,ignatius1 of ,st4 ,stanislaus1 of 
,st4 ,francis of ,assist1 of ,st4       
,clare1 of ,st4 ,teresa4  ,illustration3
    ,the hid battlements of ,eternity3  
,those shaken mists a space unsettle1   
then   ,round the half-glimpsed turrets 
slowly wash again  ,page #ef  ,the      
neologisms and archaic words employed in
 the poem seem to be a legitimate and   
instinctive effort of the poet's        
inspiration to soar above the           
limitations of time and to liberate     
itself from the transient accretions of 

a living1 and therefore constantly      
changing1 mode of speech4  ,he strove   
after an enfranchisement of utterance1  
devoid of stratifying peculiarities1    
assignable to no age or epoch1 and      
understood of all4  ,a soul-shaking     
thought1 prevalent throughout           
,christendom1 was felt imaginatively by 
a highly endowed poet1 and1 like        
impetuous volcanic fires that fling     
heavenward mighty fragments and boulders
 of mountain in their red release1 found
 magnificent expression in elemental    
grandeurs of language1 shot through with
 the wild lights of hidden flames and   
transcending all pettiness of calculated
 artifice and fugitive fashion4  ,the   
dominating idea in the ,hound of ,heaven
 is so familiar1 so--one might          
say--innate1 that it is almost impudent 
to undertake to explain it4  ,even in   
the cases of persons to whom the reading
 of poetry is an uncultivated and       
difficult art1 there is an instantaneous
 leap of recognition as the thought     

emerges from the cloudy glories of the  
poem4 ,still1 modern popular systems of 
philosophy are so dehumanizing in their 
tendencies1 and so productive of what   
may be called secondary and artificially
 planted instincts1 that it is perhaps  
not entirely useless to attempt to      
elucidate the obvious4  ,the heavens1   
says ,hazlitt1 have gone farther off and
 become astronomical4  ,the home-like   
conception of the universe in mediaeval 
times1 when dying was like going out of 
one room into another1 and man          
entertained a neighborly feeling for the
 angels1 has a tendency to disappear as 
science unfolds more and more new       
infinities of time and space1 new       
infinities of worlds and forms of life4 
,the curious notion has crept in1 that  
man must sink lower into insignificance 
with every new discovery of the vastness
 and huge design of creation4  ,god     
would seem to have over-reached ,himself
 in disclosing ,his power and majesty1  
stunning and overwhelming the intellect 

and heart with the crushing weight of   
the evidences of ,his ,infinity4  ,we   
have modern thinkers regarding          
,christian notions of the ,godhead as   
impossible to a mind acquainted with the
 paralyzing revelations of scientific   
knowledge4 ,the late ,john ,fiske used  
to deride what he called the            
anthromorphism of the ,christian idea of
 ,god1 as of a venerable1 white-bearded 
man4  ,and these philosophers deem it   
more reverent to deny any personal      
relationship between ,god and man for   
the reason that ,god is too great to be 
interested in man1 and man too little to
 be an object of interest4  ,before     
indicating the essential error of this  
attitude1 it is necessary to state1     
merely for the sake of historical       
accuracy1 that the ,christian conception
 of the ,godhead1 as expressed by ,st4  
,thomas ,aquinas1 ,dante1 ,lessius1 and 
a host of ,christian writers1 has never 
been approached in its sublime          
suggestions of ,infinite and ,eternal   

power and glory by any modern           
philosopher4  ,in the second and third  
,lectures of ,cardinal ,newman's1 ,scope
 and ,nature of ,university ,education1 
there is an outline of the ,christian   
teaching of the nature of ,god which1 in
 painstaking accuracy of thought and    
sheer grandeur of conception1 has no    
counterpart in modern literature4  ,let 
us always remember that telescope and   
microscope in all the range of their    
discoveries have not uncovered the      
existence of anything greater than man  
himself4  ,the most massive star of the 
,milky ,way is not so wonderful as the  
smallest human child4  ,moreover man's  
present entourage of illimitable space  
and countless circling suns and planets 
cannot be said to have cost an          
omnipotent ,god more trouble1 so to     
speak1 than a universe a million times  
smaller4  ,the prodigality of the       
,creator reveals ,his endless resources2
 if the vision of sidereal abysses and  
flaming globes intimidates me and makes 

me cynical about my unimportance1 is it 
not because ,i have lost the high       
consciousness of a spiritual being and  
forgotten the unplumbed chasms which    
separate matter from mind8              
,illustration3    ,whether man's heart  
or life it be which yields   ,thee      
harvest1 must ,thy harvest fields   ,be 
dunged with rotten death8  ,page #eg    
,in ,francis ,thompson's ,catholic      
philosophy1 which must be partially     
understood if the reader is to get at   
the heart of the ,hound of ,heaven1 the 
tremendous manifestations of ,god's     
attributes of power prepare us to expect
 equally tremendous manifestations of   
,his attributes of love4  ,the more     
prodigal ,god is discovered to be in    
lavish expenditures of omnipotence in   
the material universe1 the more alert   
the soul becomes to look for and to     
detect overwhelming surprises of ,divine
 ,love4  ,hence1 to ,thompson there was 
nothing irrational in the special       
revelation of ,god to man1 in ,his      

,incarnation1 ,his death on the cross1  
and ,his sacramental life in the        
,church4  ,the ,divine energy of ,god's 
love1 as displayed in the supernatural  
revelation of ,himself1 seems to be even
 vaster and more intense than the       
,divine energy of creation displayed in 
the revelation of nature4  ,every new   
revelation of ,god's power and wisdom   
which science unfolds serves only to    
restore a balance in our mind between   
,god's power and ,god's love4  ,the more
 astronomical the heavens become1 the   
closer they bring ,god to us4  ,another 
conception of ,god to be kept in mind1  
if we are to grasp the meaning of the   
,hound of ,heaven1 is the omniscient    
character1 the infinite perfection1 of  
,god's knowledge4  ,god sees each of us 
as fully and completely as if there were
 no one else and nothing else to see    
except us4  ,practically speaking1 ,god 
gives each one of us ,his undivided     
attention4  ,and through this spacious  
channel of ,his ,divine and exclusive   

attention pour the ocean-tides of ,his  
love4  ,the weak soul is afraid of the  
terrible excess of ,divine ,love4  ,it  
tries to elude it2 but ,love meets it at
 every cross-road and by-path1 down     
which it would run and hide itself1 and 
gently turns it back4  ,francis         
,thompson1 in an interpretation of ,a   
,narrow ,vessel1 has left us in prose a 
description of human weakness and       
wilfulness reluctant of its true bliss4 
,the following passage is an excellent  
commentary on the ,hound of ,heaven4    
,though ,god1 he says1 asks of the soul 
but to love ,him what it may1 and is    
ready to give an increased love for a   
poor little1 the soul feels that this   
infinite love demands naturally its     
whole self1 that if it begin to love    
,god it may not stop short of all it has
 to yield4  ,it is troubled1 even if it 
did go a brief way1 on the upward path2 
it fears and recoils from the whole     
great surrender1 the constant effort    
beyond itself which is sensibly laid on 

it4  ,it falls back with relieved       
contentment on some human love1 a love  
on its own plane1 where somewhat short  
of total surrender may go to requital1  
where no upward effort is needful4  ,and
 it ends by giving for the meanest1 the 
most unsufficing and half-hearted       
return1 that utter self-surrender and   
self-effacement which it denied to ,god4
  ,even 7how rarely7 if the return be   
such as mortal may render1 how empty and
 unsatiated it leaves the soul4  ,one   
always is less generous to love than the
 other4  ,god walks morning1 noon and   
eve in the garden of the soul1 calling  
it to a happiness which affrights it4   
,and the timid and self-seeking soul    
strives to hide itself under the stars1 
under the clouds of heaven1 under human 
love1 under the distractions of work and
 pleasure and study1 offers itself as a 
wistful servitor to child and man and   
nature1 if they will but afford it a    
refuge from the persistent and gentle   
accents of pursuivant ,love4  ,but all  

things are in league with ,god1 ,who    
made and rules them4  ,they cannot      
conspire against ,him4  ,they betray the
 refugee4  ,he turns in abject          
surrender1 and is astonished to find the
 rest and happiness that he quested for 
so wildly4  ,the ,divine thwartings     
which had harassed the soul become a    
tender mystery of ,infinite ,love       
forcing itself upon an unworthy and     
unwilling creature4 ,someone has said   
that every life is a romance of ,divine 
,love4  ,the ,hound of ,heaven is a     
version of that romance which smites the
 soul into an humble mood of            
acknowledgment and penitence4  ,,james  
,j4 ,,daly1 ,s4 ,j4     ,,of ,,the      
,,hound ,,of ,,heaven  ,francis         
,thompson1 born in ,preston in #ahei1   
spent the greater part of his mature    
life in ,london where he died in #aijg4 
,he was educated at ,ushaw ,college near
 ,durham1 and afterwards went to ,owens 
,college1 ,manchester1 to qualify as a  
doctor4  ,but his gift as prescriber and

 healer lay elsewhere than in the       
consulting-room4  ,he walked to ,london 
in search of a living1 finding1 indeed1 
a prolonged near approach to death in   
its streets2 until at length his        
literary powers were discovered by      
himself and by others1 and he began1 in 
his later twenties1 an outpouring of    
verse which endured for a half-decade of
 years--his ,poems1 his ,sister ,songs1 
and his ,new ,poems4  ,the ,hound of    
,heaven marked the return of the        
nineteenth century to ,thomas  ,kempis4 
,the great poetry of it transcended1 in 
itself and in its influence1 all        
conventions2 so that it won the love of 
a ,catholic ,mystic like ,coventry      
,patmore2 was included by ,dean         
,beeching in his ,lyra ,sacra among its 
older high compeers2 and gave new heart 
to quite another manner of man1 ,edward 
,burne-,jones4  ,w4 ,m4    ,illustration
     ,,illustrations   ,when she lit her
 glimmering tapers 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4    
,frontispiece  ,titanic glooms of       

chasmed fears  ,across the margent of   
the world ,i fled  ,i said to dawn3 ,be 
sudden  ,i knew how the clouds arise    
,naked ,i wait ,thy love's uplifted     
stroke6  ,yea1 faileth now even dream   
,the hid battlements of ,eternity       
,whether man's heart or life it be which
 yields  ,i fled ,him1 down the         
labyrinthine ways  ,lest1 having ,him1  
,i must have naught beside              
,thunder-driven1 ,they clanged ,his     
chariot  ,in her wind-walled palace  ,i 
shook the pillaring hours  ,and now my  
heart is as a broken fount  ,that ,voice
 is round me like a bursting sea        
,illustration3    ,i fled ,him1 down the
 labyrinthine ways   ,of my own mind    
,,the ,,hound ,,of ,,heaven    ,i fled  
,him1 down the nights and down the days2
   ,i fled ,him1 down the arches of the 
years2   ,i fled ,him1 down the         
labyrinthine ways     ,of my own mind2  
and in the mist of tears   ,i hid from  
,him1 and under running laughter4       
,up vistaed hopes1 ,i sped2         ,and

 shot1 precipitated1   ,adown ,titanic  
glooms of chasmd fears1     ,from those 
strong ,feet that followed1 followed    
after4         ,but with unhurrying     
chase1         ,and unperturbd pace1    
,deliberate speed1 majestic instancy1   
,they beat--and a ,voice beat           
,more instant than the ,feet--          
,all things betray thee1 who betrayest  
,me4  ,illustration          ,i pleaded1
 out law-wise1   ,by many a hearted     
casement1 curtained red1     ,trellised 
with intertwining charities   7,for1    
though ,i knew ,his love ,who followd1  
,yet was ,i sore adread   ,lest1 having 
,him1 ,i must have naught beside72      
,but1 if one little casement parted     
wide1     ,the gust of ,his approach    
would clash it to4     ,fear wist not to
 evade as ,love wist to pursue4         
,across the margent of the world ,i     
fled1     ,and troubled the gold        
gateways of the stars1     ,smiting for 
shelter on their clangd bars2           
,fretted to dulcet jars   ,and silvern  

chatter the pale ports o' the moon4   ,i
 said to dawn3 ,be sudden2 to eve3 ,be  
soon--     ,with thy young skyey        
blossoms heap me over         ,from this
 tremendous ,lover6   ,float thy vague  
veil about me1 lest ,he see6     ,i     
tempted all ,his servitors1 but to find 
,my own betrayal in their constancy1    
,in faith to ,him their fickleness to   
me1     ,their traitorous trueness1 and 
their loyal deceit4   ,to all swift     
things for swiftness did ,i sue2        
,clung to the whistling mane of every   
wind4         ,but whether they swept1  
smoothly fleet1       ,the long         
savannahs of the blue2           ,or    
whether1 ,thunder-driven1       ,they   
clanged ,his chariot 'thwart a heaven   
,plashy with flying lightnings round the
 spurn o' their feet3--     ,fear wist  
not to evade as ,love wist to pursue4   
,still with unhurrying chase1           
,and unperturbd pace1   ,deliberate     
speed1 majestic instancy1               
,came on the following ,feet1           

,and a ,voice above their beat--        
,naught shelters thee1 who wilt not     
shelter ,me4   ,illustration3           
,thunder-driven1   ,they clanged ,his   
chariot 'thwart a heaven   ,plashy with 
flying lightnings round the spurn o'    
their feet   ,illustration    ,i sought 
no more that after which ,i strayed     
,in face of man or maid2       ,but     
still within the little children's eyes 
,seems something1 something that        
replies1   ,they at least are for me1   
surely for me6   ,i turned me to them   
very wistfully2   ,but just as their    
young eyes grew sudden fair       ,with 
dawning answers there1   ,their angel   
plucked them from me by the hair4       
,illustration3 ,in her wind-walled      
palace     ,come then1 ye other         
children1     ,nature's--share     ,with
 me 7said ,i7 your delicate fellowship2 
,let me greet you lip to lip1     ,let  
me twine with you caresses1             
,wantoning     ,with our ,lady-,mother's
 vagrant tresses1         ,banqueting   

,with her in her wind-walled palace1    
,underneath her azured das1             
,quaffing1 as your taintless way is1    
,from a chalice   ,lucent-weeping out of
 the dayspring4         ,so it was done2
   ,i in their delicate fellowship was  
one--   ,drew the bolt of ,nature's     
secrecies4         ,i knew all the swift
 importings         ,on the wilful face 
of skies2         ,i knew how the clouds
 arise1         ,spumd of the wild      
sea-snortings2           ,all that's    
born or dies       ,rose and drooped    
with2 made them shapers   ,of mine own  
moods1 or wailful or divine--           
,with them joyed and was bereaven4      
,i was heavy with the even1     ,when   
she lit her glimmering tapers           
,round the day's dead sanctities4       
,i laughed in the morning's eyes4   ,i  
triumphed and ,i saddened with all      
weather1       ,heaven and ,i wept      
together1   ,and its sweet tears were   
salt with mortal mine2   ,against the   
red throb of its sunset-heart           

,i laid my own to beat1           ,and  
share commingling heat2   ,but not by   
that1 by that1 was eased my human smart4
   ,in vain my tears were wet on        
,heaven's grey cheek4   ,for ah6 we know
 not what each other says1              
,these things and ,i2 in sound ,i       
speak--   ,their sound is but their     
stir1 they speak by silences4   ,nature1
 poor stepdame1 cannot slake by drouth2 
,let her1 if she would owe me1   ,drop  
yon blue bosom-veil of sky1 and show me 
,the breasts o' her tenderness3   ,never
 did any milk of hers once bless        
,my thirsting mouth4         ,nigh and  
nigh draws the chase1           ,with   
unperturbd pace1         ,deliberate    
speed1 majestic instancy1           ,and
 past those noisd ,feet           ,a    
,voice comes yet more fleet--           
,lo6 naught contents thee1 who          
content'st not ,me4     ,illustration   
,illustration3    ,i shook the pillaring
 hours   ,and pulled my life upon me    
,naked ,i wait ,thy love's uplifted     

stroke6   ,my harness piece by piece    
,thou hast hewn from me1           ,and 
smitten me to my knee2           ,i am  
defenceless utterly4           ,i slept1
 methinks1 and woke1   ,and1 slowly     
gazing1 find me stripped in sleep4   ,in
 the rash lustihead of my young powers1 
,i shook the pillaring hours   ,and     
pulled my life upon me2 grimed with     
smears1   ,i stand amid the dust o' the 
mounded years--   ,my mangled youth lies
 dead beneath the heap4   ,my days have 
crackled and gone up in smoke1   ,have  
puffed and burst as sun-starts on a     
stream4       ,yea1 faileth now even    
dream   ,the dreamer1 and the lute the  
lutanist2   ,even the linked fantasies1 
in whose blossomy twist   ,i swung the  
earth a trinket at my wrist1   ,are     
yielding2 cords of all too weak account 
,for earth1 with heavy griefs so        
overplussed4         ,ah6 is ,thy love  
indeed   ,a weed1 albeit an amaranthine 
weed1   ,suffering no flowers except its
 own to mount8           ,ah6 must--    

,designer infinite6--   ,ah6 must ,thou 
char the wood ere ,thou canst limn with 
it8   ,my freshness spent its wavering  
shower i' the dust2   ,and now my heart 
is as a broken fount1   ,wherein        
tear-drippings stagnate1 spilt down ever
           ,from the dank thoughts that 
shiver   ,upon the sighful branches of  
my mind4           ,such is2 what is to 
be8   ,the pulp so bitter1 how shall    
taste the rind8   ,i dimly guess what   
,time in mists confounds2   ,yet ever   
and anon a trumpet sounds   ,from the   
hid battlements of ,eternity3   ,those  
shaken mists a space unsettle1 then     
,round the half-glimpsd turrets slowly  
wash again2           ,but not ere ,him 
who summoneth           ,i first have   
seen1 enwound   ,and now my heart is as 
a broken fount1   ,wherein              
tear-drippings stagnate1 spilt down ever
   ,from the dank thoughts that shiver  
,with glooming robes purpureal1         
cypress-crowned2   ,his name ,i know1   
and what his trumpet saith4   ,whether  

man's heart or life it be which yields  
,thee harvest1 must ,thy harvest fields 
,be dunged with rotten death8           
,illustration3    ,and now my heart is  
as a broken fount1   ,wherein           
tear-drippings stagnate1 spilt down ever
   ,from the dank thoughts that shiver  
,illustration     ,now of that long     
pursuit   ,comes on at hand the bruit2  
,that ,voice is round me like a bursting
 sea3           ,and is thy earth so    
marred1           ,shattered in shard on
 shard8     ,lo1 all things fly thee1   
for thou fliest ,me6         ,strange1  
piteous1 futile thing1   ,wherefore     
should any set thee love apart8         
,seeing none but ,i makes much of naught
 7,he said71   ,and human love needs    
human meriting3         ,how hast thou  
merited--   ,of all man's clotted clay  
the dingiest clot8         ,alack1 thou 
knowest not   ,how little worthy of any 
love thou art6   ,whom wilt thou find to
 love ignoble thee1         ,save ,me1  
save only ,me8   ,all which ,i took from

 thee ,i did but take1         ,not for 
thy harms1   ,but just that thou        
might'st seek it in ,my arms4           
,all which thy child's mistake          
,fancies as lost1 ,i have stored for    
thee at home3         ,rise1 clasp ,my  
hand1 and come4           ,halts by me  
that footfall3           ,is my gloom1  
after all1     ,shade of ,his hand1     
outstretched caressingly8           ,ah1
 fondest1 blindest1 weakest1            
,i am ,he ,whom thou seekest6   ,thou   
dravest love from thee1 who dravest ,me4
    ,illustration3 ,that ,voice is round
 me like a bursting sea                 
,illustration     ,illustration3 ,back  
end papers