Poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins

The Lantern out of Doors

SOMETIMES a lantern moves along the night,
  That interests our eyes. And who goes there?
  I think; where from and bound, I wonder, where,
With, all down darkness wide, his wading light?

Men go by me whom either beauty bright
  In mould or mind or what not else makes rare:
  They rain against our much-thick and marsh air
Rich beams, till death or distance buys them quite.

Death or distance soon consumes them: wind
  What most I may eye after, be in at the end
I cannot, and out of sight is out of mind.

Christ minds: Christ’s interest, what to avow or amend
  There, éyes them, heart wánts, care haúnts, foot fóllows kínd,
Their ránsom, théir rescue, ánd first, fást, last friénd.

1. Ribblesdale
2. Harry Ploughman
3. Strike, Churl
4. The Loss of the Eurydice
5. Cheery Beggar

Print

1861 Views

Last Poems

To Russian version