A Study of Francis Thompson’s The Hound of Heaven

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fcis

Thompson

s

Hound of Heaven

A STUDY

.1.

F.

X.

O'CONOK.

S..)

Copyright,

I

A STUDY OF

FRANCIS THOMPSON'S

Hound of Heaven

REV.

J.

F. X.

O'CONOR,

S. J.

)> ProiesEor of Philosophy, St. Francis Xavier College, N.

Founder of Brooklyn College,

,

Editor o[ Autobiography oi St. Ignatius, of Life of St. Aloysius, etc.

Y

Jltn)irunatur.

Joseph F. Hanselmann, S.J.

Jmprimalitr.

John

JJiI?il

ifi

Cardinal Faui.ev

©bfltat.

Remigius Lafort

'CU327H72

^ STUDY OF

FRANCIS THOMPSON'S

HOUND OF HEAVEN By Rev.

F. X.

J.

O'Conor, SJ.

This great poem, strange to say,

known.

It is

is

comparatively

little

the sweetest, deepest, strongest song ever

written in the English tongue.

Among some Feast," Dryden,

of

the

"Ode on

great

odes

are

"Alexander's

the Nativity," Milton, "Intima-

Wordsworth. To say Thompson's is to place it unranked judgment it is greater.

tions of Immortality,"

poem is one among them.

of the great odes In

my

do not hesitate to say with the Bookman that "the Hound of Heaven seems to us, on the whole, the most wonderful lyric in the language. It fingers all the stops but under all, the still sad music of the spirit of humanity," and with the Times, that "people will still I

.

.

.

by heart two hundred years hence, for

be learning

it

has about

the unique thing that

It is

it

makes

it

for immortality.

the return of the nineteenth century to

Thomas a

Kempis."

With

the Spectator,

carrying so

much

I

ask, "is there

any religious poem an ode in

of the passion of penitence 3

—

the

manner of Crashaw, and

than holds

its

in the

comparison,

it

more

own."

With Coventry Patmore

marvel

I

at

the "profound

thoughts and far«fetched splendor of imagery, qualities

which ought

him

to place

in

the

permanent ranks of

fame," while even Burne- Jones cries out "Since Gabriel's

me Hound of Heaven." And may we not add the words of G. K. Chesterton, "with Francis Thompson we lose the greatest poetic

Blessed Damosel no mystical words have so touched as the

energy

since

Browning.

In

his

poetry

as

in

the

poetry of the universe, you can work infinitely out and

and in. These two infinities are mark of a great poet, and he was a great poet." "The great poetry of it (The Hound of Heaven) tran-

out, but yet infinitely in

the

scended in

itself

and

in

its

says Wilfrid Meynell, "so that

influence it

all

won the love

conventions," of a Catholic

Coventry Patmore; was included by Canon Beeching in his Lyra Sacra among its older high compeers and gave new heart to quite another manner of Mystic

like

;

man, Edward Burne- Jones." It would be difficult to find another poem in the language that gives such food for thought, so satisfying, so new, that can be read and reread, and always with a relish and a discovery of a new application, or the glimmer of an unseen light. In many poems, one reading suffices, and the mind is sated, for the whole depth is plummeted and all is revealed in a single view. It is not so in this poem. There is a depth that can be sounded, and deeper depths are still there. The vision takes in the view, but other details arise that charm, or surprise, or startle, or evoke admiration at the spiritual insight into the workings of the soul. It gives great and wide range of thought within a small compass, and a deep

—

knowledge of the human

soul, of the

God and of

the soul's relation to

meanings of

life,

and of the hold of God's love upon the soul in spite of fleeing from Him to the creatures of His hand.

human

happiness the

It is It

never ceases

year after year,

soul

days of labor are borne to gain it

thinks

may buy

it

and pain are spent to

Night and day,

The weary

grasping after happiness.

it is

wealth with which

tlie

The days

happiness.

its

ever yearning for.

is

quest for happiness.

its

of

other beings not God,

of suffering

watching and waiting for the agony pass, that happiness may come. It looks for it in every in

creature, in the earth, in the sea, in the air.

asks

all

these things

the answer of earth, for

Him, for His

happiness, and in ness.

It

will

—wherein

air,

sea

glory."

is

"He made

So

the soul

these things

all

find

The

your liappiness

is

it

will

us." is

soul

—and

"We

are

looking for

not find happi-

happiness only in God.

And

yet

God, it turns away from Him and seeks it in the creature, something that is not God. And God is ever seeking that soul which is running away from Him. Wherever it runs, the sound of those feet, following ever after, is heard, and a voice, stronger than instead of seeking

it

in

the beat

But with unhurrying chase.

And

imperturbed pace,

Deliberate speed, majestic instancy

They More

beat

—and

a Voice beats

instant than the feet,

who

"All things betray thee,

And

this

He

Me."

thought of the creature fleeing from God, and

ever pursued by His love, in the

betrayest

is

most beautifully expressed

poem of Francis Thompson,

seems to sing

in verse, the

5

the great Catholic poet:

thought of

St. Ignatius in

the spiritual exercises, tender,

insistent

—the

thought of

love of Christ

St.

Paul

in the-

for the soul, and the

yearning of Christ for the love of that soul which ever runs after creatitres,

till

the love of Christ

awakens

in

God, which dims and deadens all love of This was the creatures except through love for Him. it

a love of

its

love of St. Paul, of St. Ignatius, of St. Stanislaus, of St.

Francis of Assisi, of

St. Clare,

of St. Theresa.

THE HOUND OF HEAVEN. The name

is

strange.

rather the reverse.

strangeness

As

the

one at

It startles

bold, so new, so fearless.

It

first.

It is

so

does not attract at once,

But when one reads the poem this The meaning is understood.

disappears.

hound follows the

never ceasing in

hare,

its

running, ever drawing nearer in the chase, with unhur-

rying and imperturbed pace, so does fleeing soul in

human

by His Divine grace.

love,

away from God

God

follow the

And though it

in sin or

seeks to hide

itself.

Divine grace follows after, unwearyingly follows ever after,

Him

till

the soul feels

its

pressure forcing

alone in that never ending pursuit

it

to turn to

:

FRANCIS THOMPSON. Thompson was born

Francis

at Preston in 1859, the After seven years at Ushaw, he went

son of a physician.

Queens 'College to quaHfy for his father's profession. to London ill and in great poverty, in reality starving, and was saved by the act of one whom he has

to

He came

immortalized

"She passed

— O brave,

And

of her

Then

fled,

That

own I

sad, lovingest, tender thing,

scant pittance did she give

might eat and

live:

a swift and trackless fugitive."

He St.

died in the hospital of St. John and St. Elizabeth, in John's Wood, at the age of forty-eight, on November

13, 1907. His works are: Poems, Sister Songs, New Poems, Selected Poems, The Hound of Heaven. In prose he has written "Shelly," Health and Holiness, and "The Life of St. Ignatius Loyola." The last named

edited, with notes, by J. H. Pollen, S.J. "History will certainly be busy with this remarkable man's life," writes Alice Meynell, "as well as with his work; and this record will serve in the future, being at is

any

rate, strictly true.

As

to the fate of his poetry in

judgment of his country, I liave no misgivings. For no reactions of taste, no vicissitude of language, no change in the prevalent fashions of the art, no altering sense of the music of verse, can lessen the height or the

diminish the greatness of this poet's thought, or undo his experience, or unlive the life of this elect soul, or efface its passion. There is a call to our

time from' the and this purely English poet cried "Adsum" to the resounding summons: Come, and come strong

noble seventeenth century

To

;

the conspiracy of

8

our spacious song.

—

;

The Hound

of

;

;

Heaven

FLED

I I

Him, down the nights and down the days Him, down the arches of the years fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways Of my own mind and in the mist of tears hid from Him, and under running laughter. fled

I

;

1

Up And

Adown

vistaed hopes,

I

sped;

shot, precipitated,

Titanic glooms of chasmed fears.

From

those strong Feet that followed, followed after.

But with unhurrying chase,

And

unperturbed pace,

Deliberate speed, majestic instancy.

—

They beat and a Voice beat More instant than the Feet "All things betray thee,

I

By many

who

betrayest

Me."

pleaded, outlaw-wise,

a hearted casement, curtained red,

Trellised with interwining charities I knew His love Who followed. Yet was I sore adread having Him, I must have naught beside.)

(For, though

Lest,

But,

if

The

one

little

casement parted wide,

gust of His approach would clash

it

to.

Fear wist not to evade as Love wist to pursue. 9,

— —

;

!

Across the margent of the world

fled,

I

And

troubled the gold gateways of the stars, Smiting for shelter on their clanged bars;

Efctted

to

dulcet

jars

And

silvern chatter the pale ports o' the moon. I said to dawn: Be sudden; to eve: Be soon

With thy young skyey blossoms heap me over

From

tremendous Lover!

this

Float thy vague veil about me, lest I

IVIy

tempted

own

all

Him

their fickleness to

Their traitorous

tr'ueness,

and

me,

their loyal deceit.

swift things for swiftness did

all

see

to find

betrayal in their constancy.

In faith to

To

He

His servitors, but

I

sue;

Clung to the whistling mane of every wind. But whether they swept, smoothly fleet.

The long savannahs of

the blue;

Or

whether. Thunder-driven, They clanged His chariot 'thwart a heaven, Flashy with flying lightnings round the spurn o' feet

their

:—

Fear wist not to evade as Love wist to pursue. Still with unhurrying chase.

And unperturbed pace. Deliberate speed, majestic instancy. Came on the following Feet, And a Voice above their beat "Naught shelters thee, who wilt not shelter Me." I

sought no more that after which In face of

But

still

man

within the

little

at least

strayed

children's eyes

Seems something, something

They

I

or maid

are for me, surely for

10

that replies,

me!

—— ;

:

me

them very wistfully; young eyes grew sudden fair With dawning answers there, Their angel plucked them from me by the hair I

turned

But just as

"Come

to

their

then, ye other children,

With me" Let Let

Nature's

—share

"your delicate fellowship; greet you lip to lip.

(said I)

me me

twine with you caresses.

Wantoning

With our Lady-Mother's vagrant

tresses,

Banqueting

With her

in

her wind-walled palace,

Underneath her azured dais, Quaffing, as your taintless way

From

is,

a chalice

Lucent-weeping out of the dayspring." So it was done /

fellowship

in their delicate

Drew

was one

the bolt of Nature's secrecies.

/

knew

On

all

the swift importings

the wilful face of skies;

knew how the Spumed of the

I

clouds arise,

wild sea-snortings

All that's born or dies

Rose and drooped with; made them shapers Of mine own moods, or wailful or divine With them joyed and was bereaven. I was heavy with the even. When she lit her glimmering tapers

Round I

the day's dead sanctities.

laughed

in

the morning's eyes.

I triumphed and I saddened with all weather, Heaven and I wept together, 11

;

And its sweet tears were Against the red throb of I

laid

And But not by

that,

vam my

tears

salt

my own

share

by

with mortal mine; sunset-heart

its

to beat,

commingHng

heat

my human smart! were wet on Heaven's grey cheek. For ah we know not what each other says, These things and I; in sound / speak— Their sound is but their stir, they speak by silences. Nature, poor stepdame, cannot slake my drouth; In

that,

was eased

!^

Let her, if she would owe me. Drop yon blue bosom-veil of sky, and show me The breasts o' her tenderness: Never did any milk of hers once bless

My

thirsting mouth.

Nigh and nigh draws the With unperturbed pace,

chase,

Deliberate speed, majestic instancy. And past those noised Feet

A

Voice comes yet more

"Lo naught Naked I wait Thy !

My

contents thee,

fleet

who

content'st not

Me "

love's uplifted stroke!

harness piece by piece

Thou

hast

hewn from me.

And smitten me to my knee; I am defenceless utterly.

I slept, methinks, and woke, And, slowly gazing, fmd me stripped in sleep In the rash lustihead of my young powers, I

And 1

pulled

my

shook the pillaring hours life upon me; grimed with smears

stand amid the dust

My My

mangled youth

o'

the

mounded years—

dead beneath the heap days have crackled and gone up in smoke Have puffed and burst as sun-starts on a stream 18 lies

—

;

now even dream

Yea, faileth

The dreamer, and

the lute the lutanist;

Even the linked fantasies, in whose blossomy I swung the earth a trinket at my wrist, Are yielding; cords of all too weak account For earth, with heavy griefs so overplussed.

Ah

A

weed,

!

is

Thy

albeit

twist

love indeed

an amaranthine weed,

Suffering no flowers except

its

own

mount?

to

Ah! mustDesigner

Ah

with

My

infinite

!

must Thou char the wood ere Thou canst limn

!

it?

freshness spent

And now my

heart

its is

wavering shower

i'the

dust;

as a broken fount,

Wherein tear-drippings stagnate, spilt down ever From the dank thoughts that shiver

Upon

the sighful branches of

Such

The pulp I

is;

what

so bitter,

is

how

my

mind.

to be? shall taste the rind?

dimly guess what Time in mists confounds;

Yet ever and anon

From

a trumpet sounds

the hid battlements of Eternity:

Those shaken mists a space

Round

unsettle,

then

the half-glimpsed turrets slowly

wash again

But not ere him who summoneth I first have seen, enwound With glooming robes purpureal, cypress-crowned; His name I know, and what his trumpet saith. Whether man's heart or life it be which yields Thee harvest, must Thy harvest fields Be dunged with rotten death? 13

Now

of that long pursuit

Conies on at hand the bruit; sea: That Voice-is round me Uke a bursting

"And

'

is

thy earth so marred,

Shattered in shard on shard? Lo, all things fly thee, for thou fliest Strange, piteous, futile thing!

Me

Wherefore should any set thee love apart? naught" (He Seeing none but I make much of

"And human

How Of

love

needs human

said),

meriting:

merited—

hast thou

man's clotted clacy the dingiest clot? Alack, thou knowest not thou art! little worthy of any love

all

How

Whom

wilt

thou find

to love ignoble thee,

Save Me, save only Me? did but take, All which I took from thee I Not for thy harms. arms. it in just that thou might'st seek

My

But

All which thy child's mistake thee at home: Fancies as lost, I have stored for come." and hand, My clasp Rise,

Halts by me that footfall: Is my gloom, after all, caressingly? Shade of His hand, outstretched

"Ah, fondest, I

Thou

blindest, weakest,

am He Whom

thou seekest

dravest love from thee,

U

who

dravest Me."

—

THE HOUND OF HEAVEN. Interpretation.

The

poet begins with the idea of the soul fleeing from

God, "I

Him down

the arches of the years," and from Him in sorrow and joy, "in the mist of tears and under running laughter." Nor can it escape either in hope or fear from those feet "that follow after" "up vistaed hopes" and "adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears." For those feet ever follow after and a voice beats "more instant than the feet" "with unhurrying chase, and unperturbed pace, majestic in-

how

it

fled

strives to hide

'

stancy."

"All things betray thee who betrayest me." And when it came to plead for the love of other hearts, "by many a hearted casement," although it knew

His

love, yet

feared

it

having him,

lest

it

must have

naught beside.

The human and be

heart

not generous enough to give up

is

satisfied witli the love of

God.

things besides God,

and because God

love in His place,

fears the love of

and

this sacrifice,

not satisfied with

when

it

the "casement

proach would clash

The

soul

is

is it

The

world, to the moon, love

and

at

its veil

eve

it

lest

God

instead.

creature must love

Him. is

it

It flees,

it

see.

15

pursuing. At dawn upon the sky to drop

still

calls

but love pursues

the stars across the

flee to

there

strives to hide,

He

have no other

God which demands

to."

in fear of

And though

after fear.

will

all,

wishes other

But He is Him, So parted wide" the "gust of His ap-

sacrifices

it

this.

It

/

tempt God's creatures, but finds them constant, and itself betrayed. To everything swift it turns to evade the Divine pursuer, to the wind of the It tries to

prairie, or to- the t^iunder-driven

winds that sweep the

heavens mid thunder and Hghtning-, but its fear cannot evade the swift following- of love. Its search is vain in the face of man or maid, and it turns to the children, thinking "they at least are for me, surely for me," again

They answer

to be undeceived.

them away.

not, for their angel takes

Nature's children will guard their fellow-

Mother Earth, in her wind and her blue dais of the

ship, playing with the tresses of

palace with

walls

of

heavens, drinking from a chalice out of the day-spring. It

learned the secrets of Nature, the changes in the sky

and the meaning thereof, the origin of the clouds from the foam of the sea, the causes of life and death, and

made

these

tell

his

moods of lamentation or

divine

companions of joy or sorrow. It was heavy with the evening, and radiant with laughter in the morning, and glad in bright and sad in stormy weather. It wept with nature and throbbed in unison with its sunset heart. But not all these things could fill the craving. Nature felt the tears on her own cheek, but could not understand, or speak. Nature was but a stepmother, and could not slake that thirst, nor did she once give to drink of her breasts for the quenching of that burning thirst. exaltation,

Nowhere can it Finally, when

find content.

has failed, when the armor

is broken and it is smitten and utterly defenceless, the soul that seemed sleeping, awakes. It finds that in its sleep it has been stripped.

piece by piece

all

and

falls

from the

In the rash strength of pillars of life in time.

heaped up as a mound,

It

its

soul

youth,

it

pulled

down

stood amid the dust of

all

begrimed with smears. IG

its

the

years

—

!

Its youth lies dead under that heap, the days of life seem to have caught fire as chips, and crackled and gone up in smoke, and seemed to puff up and burst, as the sunlight flashes on rippling water. And now even the dream is gone from the dreamer, and the lute no more gives music for the lute-player. Even the thoughts of poesy that seemed to make the earth an enchanted toy are fading away; they were not strong enough cords for the earth, and are overtaxed by grief. All is so full of sadness, and sorrow, and grief, and

failure to the heart seeking for love.

Ah

!

is

this

His love ?

Is

it

an immortal weed that

will

no flowers spring up but its own? Must Thou, O infinite designer, char the wood before Thou wilt draw any design with it? let

Ah must !

Designer

infinite

Ah must Thou

char the wood ere

!

with

Thou

canst limn

it?

is what puzzles the world. Must Thou char the wood? Must the soul and life be burnt

This

complete holocaust

in bitter suffering, a

—before Thou canst limn with

it?

Before God can draw, in the infinite design of His Providence, and work with the soul as a fit instrument, it must be charred in the furnace of suffering. Upon the soul must be carved the image of Jesus Christ and

Him

crucified.

In the Christian

The

pride of

tion deep

The

and

life

human

must be reproduced the crucified. life must be charred by humilia-

bitter.

sensuality of

man must 17

be burnt to a charred stick

I

by physical pain, intense suffering, denial of the senses, absolute.

The

uncontrolled* affections of the

human

heart must

be bridled, subdued, conquered, and before Divine Love

can use that heart,

all

merely

human

away, and the heart purified of

Ah

must Must Thou, Designer

dross must be burnt earthly desire.

all

!

Thou

char the wood, before

infinite,

canst limn with it?

God with

the history of the dealings of

It is

the

human

soul.

All pride, sensuality, inordinate affection must be burnt

And

God works with

it

on His design.

until that is done, after the soul there

comes the beat

out of the heart before

of insistent feet, and a voice

Deny

And it

more

and follow Me.

thyself, leave all

the voice will never cease

loves, absolutely

all,

instant than the beat.

till

even though

the soul gives up it

all

persists in strug-

gling to hold, and yields nothing until forced by that voice around

who

it

like a bursting sea,

wilt not shelter

"The

"Naught

shelters thee,

Me."

cross, therefore,

is

always ready, and everywhere

waits for thee.

Thou

canst not escape

it

whithersoever thou runnest

for whithersoever thou goest, thou carriest thyself with

and shalt always find thyself. thyself upwards, or turn thyself downwards turn thyself without or turn thyself within thee, and everywhere tjiou wilt find the cross. Prepare thyself to suffer many adversities, and divers

thee,

Turn

evils, I.

in

this

miserable

C,

12.)

My

freshness has fallen

n^y heart

is

like a

life."

down

(Imitation

as a

broken fountain, 18

shower filled

of

Christ,

in the dust,

with stagnant

I

from the moist-heavy thoughts, from the

tears that drop

my

sad branches of If the

mind.

inside of the fruit

rind taste?

I

Yet

through the mists of Time. pet

from Eternity,

how

so bitter,

is

dimly guess at what

will the

seen confusedly

is

at times I

hear a trum-

catch a glimpse of those everlasting

I

moment

them through the halfand dim the view. But not before I have seen him who calls, wrapped in his purple robes of gloom and crowned with cypress. I know death, and the meaning of his trumpet that calls an

battlements, for a

I

see

clearing mists that settle thick again

end to

all in life.

For the harvest field, whether it is of man's life or man's heart, must be dunged with death before they yield

Him

a harvest.

Life, before its harvest

is

given to the Divine Harvester

must meet with death so too, the harvest of the human heart must meet with the death of all it loves, must die ;

to self before

The Voice

is

Is that

ground?

me

around

like a

is

at hand,

it

Lo!

lies

like

things

all

now

so utterly

a broken jar in pieces fly thee,

for thou

fliest

Why

strange, pitiful object, so helpless.

thus think that anything should love thee I

and that

bursting sea.

earth which thou didst so love,

spoiled that

O

gives the harvest to the harvester of love.

it

noise of the long pursuit

?

on the me.

should

No

it

one but

loves such a wretched thing as thou art.

There should be some merit to deserve human love. What hast thou done tO' merit ? Thou, the most dingy clot of all mortal-clotted clay.

Alas, thou dost not

any

love.

Thou

love thee, but

take to

harm

know how

art so ignoble,

Me ?

Whatever

I

little

worthy thou

whom

art of

wilt thou find to

took from thee,

I

did not

thee by the loss, but that thou mightst look

19

for

it

in

my

arms.

imagine was

home.

lost, .

Rise, clasp

By I

a child's mistake,

have kept

all

what thou

stored

for

didst

thee

at

«,

my hand and

That footstep

come.

is

be-

side me. it true that what I thought was my gloom, was only shadow of His hand outstretched to caress me? hear him say to me now, and oh, how true it is

Is

the I

Ah! seekest.

fondest, blindest, weakest,

Thou

I

am He whom thou who dravest Me.

dravest love from Thee,

20

—

SEPARATE TOPICS. The Soul pursued by God. The soul flees from Him

—

—

nights, days, years in wandering of thought, in tears and laughter, in hopes and

fears

Those

More

feet

— follow —and

who

"All things betray thee,

The love of

They he

is

Voice

a

instant than the feet

betrayest Me."

creatures.

elude him, evade him, are not true to him. for

not true to God.

"Naught

shelters thee,

who

wilt

not shelter me."

The

love of children.

When

their love

seems

them from him by the The love of nature.

to

answer, their angels pluck

hair.

Nature, poor stepdame. cannot slake

my

drought.

"Lo! naught contents thee, who content' st not me." Shorn of armor defenceless asleep awake, my mangled youth lies dead. My days have gone up in smoke. Puffed and burst as sun-starts on a stream. The dream fails the dreamer, the lute the lutanist. The soul sought human love, and though I knew His love who followed, yet I was sore adread, lest having Him, I must have naught beside. The soul knows His love and knows it is a jealous love, and is afraid that if it accepts that love and answers it as it should be answered, there could be no room for any creature. And flying from that love, every human love was dis-

—

—

—

—

21

—

loyal,

false—false to the love that was false to God— true in its trueness to God—untrue to the love untrue to God. ^

God and

to

And the children just as their love angel plucked them by the hair. Come,

me your I

then, ye other

answers— their

children— Nature's— share with

delicate fellowship.

drew the

bolt of Nature's secrecies.

Knew

the importings of the wilful face of skies. How clouds arise— from the foam of the wild snortings.

Knew I

all that's

born or

was heavy with the

When

she

lit

sea

dies.

even.

her glimmering tapers.

Round I

the day's dead sanctities. laughed in the morning's eyes.

I triumphed and I saddened in all weather. But Ah We know not what each other says. In sound I speak— they speak in silences. !

Whether man's heart or harvest—must thy "harvest

be which yields Thee

life it

fields

be dunged with rotten

death.

Now

after that long pursuit

That Voice

is

round

"And

is

me

comes a

like the

noise.

bursting sea.

thy earth so marred

Shattered in shard on shard."

Lo

all

things

iiy

Thee, for thou

iiiest

me.

Wherefore should any set thee love apart? Seeing none, but I make much of naught.

"How little worthy of any love thou "Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble save only

Me?" 22

art." thee,

save

Me

All which

I

took for thee

I

did but take not for thy

harms.

at

But just that thou mightest seek All that thou didst fancy lost,

it

I

in

my

arms.

have stored for thee

home. Rise, clasp

my hand

and come.

Halts by me, that footfall. Is

my gloom after all Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly, Ah! I

fondest, blindest, weakest,

am He whom

Thou dravest

thou seekest^

love from thee,

23

who

dravest Me."

:

MYSTICAL APPLICATION. I.

THE SOUL FLEES FROM

GOD.

soul flees from God by the love of creatures, by by self-love, by turning from God, by refusing to

The sin,

listen to the inspirations of grace.

Turning away from God. 1.

"All things betray thee, zuho betrayest

Me."

Fear wist not to evade, as Love wist

"Naught

2.

who

shelters thee,

to pursue.

wilt not shelter

Me."

Children and nature. 3.

"Lo! naught contents

Naked "Lo!

4.

all

I

Thy

wait

things

iiy

Strange, piteous,

"IVhoni

5.

zvilt

thee, zvho content' st not

love's

uplifted stroke.

thee, for

thou Uiest Me."

futile

Me."

thing!

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. "Rise, clasp

6.

my

hand, and come."

Halts by me, tbat footfall

"Ah, fondest,

7.

"I

"Thou dravest The

blindest, zvcakest,

am He Whom

thou seekest!"

love

from

thee,

who

dravest Me."

soul seeks for happiness

In creatures.

In

human sympathy.

In knowledge and study and science.

35

In nature. All It

is

failure.

can find

Without

-it

only in God. all is emptiness.

Whom

The very unloveableness

of

all is

to teach the loveable-

ness of God.

has recompense for all. loved. Only He loves—He only is worthy of being happidrives Him away it drives away

He

^

When

the soul

ness. It

turns from

God—true

happiness—to look

for happi-

ness in something that is not God. It

runs away from

win

soul—yearning to pursues false happiness. This false happiness In

ever pursues the back to true happiness, while it

God— and God it

human beings—in

it

looks for in creatures.

human sympathy and

love.

In the love of little children. In the love of nature. In the love of

knowledge—earth,

sea and

stars— in the seasons—they all speak not.

20

sky,

the

MYSTICAL APPLICATION. II.

GOD PURSUES THE SOUL.

When

the soul turns

from God

dinately instead of loving God,

make

in the object loved, to

to love creatures inor-

He it

places disappointment

turn back to God,

alone can satisfy the capacity of the soul.

He

who

follows

and reproaches the disloyalty of the soul, and creatures are disloyal to it, at the time they seem loyal, with "traitorous trueness" and "loyal deceit."

God reproaches the soul, chides it, pleads with it. Sends it many inspirations, by means of a word, a mon, a

The

a sorrow of

line,

soul finds

a failure

all

ser-

a sickness, a suffering.

life,

—

^bitterness,

with despond-

ency and occasional glimpses of Eternity, and the thought of decay and death.

—

Then sounds a voice like a bursting sea. The was sought is broken in pieces like a vessel of

that

All things

human

soul

Why only

I,

fail

Whom

God can

anything

— worthy of

fill.

in thee to love,

little

and yet

Me? I

took

—

thou'lt find

stored for thee at home, not

Rise, clasp

"Halts by

my

me

it

in

my

arms,

lost.

hand and come."

that footfall

my gloom after all Shade of His hand outstretched caressingly? 27

Is

I,

love.

wilt thou find to love ignoble thee, save

"That which It's

only

I find

love thee

save only

to answer the yearning for love of the

— which

should

love clay.

Me,

Ah fondest, blindest, weakest, I am He whom thou seekest, !

Thou

Francis

knew

dravest

Ioa^^

from

Thompson wrote

thee, wTio dravest

Me."

the Life of St. Ignatius and

his ideas.

From

the

Poem we may draw

Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius

28

a parallel

with the

Spiritual Exercises.

End

Poem.

Week.

I

I.

The

of man, end of creatures,

sin,

The

hell,

every creature.

death.

soul turns

the

wrong

from God by

Resisting grace.

Returning to God. Rise, clasp My hand and come.

love of creatures.

Chooses them instead of God. Repentance. Conversion of Soul to God. II Week. Knowledge and Love of Our Lord. The Kingdom of

Christ.

The

The

Nativity.

Public Life.

from God to

soul fleeing

IL Humility,

Naked

Incarnation.

Hidden

Two

Life.

I

wait

lifted

stroke.

youth

lies

heap.

standards.

surrender.

Thy

mangled

dead beneath the little worthy of

How

any love thou

Three classes of Men. Three Degrees of Humanity.

Whom

art.

wilt thou find to love ignoble

thee save Me, save only III

Week.

The Passion of Christ. The Agony, the Scourging, The Passion of Christ.

Me ?

IH.

The Mystery of Suffering. Is Thy love indeed a weed, an amaranthine weed?

the

Ah designer infinite. Oh must Thou char the wood

Crowning with Thorns. Before Pilate. The Death in shame on the Cross in the

!

!

before

Thou burn with

Desolation

Crucifixion.

of

humiliation.

Self

it.

sorrow,

soul,

Sacrifice

with Christ Crucified. IV.

IV Week. The

up-

love's

My

Resurrection.

Rise, clasp

My

hand and come.

All which thy child's mistake

Contemplation on Divine Love. The creatures of God that

29

were means before, are now gifts from God to the

soul.

The

which

He

creatures

God

oi.

has made, lives in, in, for man, are

I have stored home.

fancies as lost, for thee at

as

my gloom

Is

His

after

all

shade of

outstretched

hcind

ca-

broken reflections of the Di-

Thou dravest Love from thee, when thou dravest

vine beauty.

Me.

operates

I

In

Week.

I.

Week

First

the

ressingly?

of

the

In

Spiritual

Thompson

natius

frorri

Exercises of St. Igthe soul meditates oij

Man and

the end for which he

God.

He

alone.

sin.

is

from

He

God.

not

in

leads

him

nor

in

all,

it

on

meditates

of

alone

the

—Yet

which separates the soul from God and casts of

evil

sin

into

it

evil

Knowing

hell.

and malice of

sin,

in

who

it,

con-

can find a

It

man — nor

children,

in

— until stripped of to God. — In Him

nature turns it

can find what

God

loves

it

it

seeks.

— unworthy

—Only God loves the —who had driven away

of love.

the

soul

His

the soul

God

turns back to God.

God,

betrays

return of love in no creature

man

creatures instead

love

to

and

God,

who

—

turns

Sin

find

finds that all things

it

it

naught contents tents not God.

them for themselves, instead of as means to help him to God. This

—

betray

and loves

creatures,

to

poetry

from

turns

away

God, and strives to

happiness in creatures, love, knowledge, children, nature,

can find happiness in

He

Francis

by

the soul turns

its

and other creatures were made,

God God

poem

the

love.

His

mercy pardons the repentant sinner and receives him back to

His friendship and His II

In

the

love.

Week.

Spiritual

II.

Exercises

the soul listens to the Voice of the

King

Christ,

followers

them

the

Kingdom His

about

of

of the Exercises

the virtue of

humility, and the surrender of

Him — asking

self as the result of failure to

find love in creatures to satisfy

re-

the yearnings of a soul

in the service of their

None but

is

noble

calls

make themselves

to

markable King.

in

who

Poem

the thought responding to the Second Week

In the

a

cowardly

for

30

God.

The

soul

is

meant sought

;

would

knight

such

refuse

None

but

cowardly

a

refuse

follow

to

capacity

soul

prove

his

him,

follow

by

love

and

So

imitating

In the humility of the IncarIn the poverty of the Nativ-

Bethlehem,

In the obscurity of the Hid-

Nazareth, In the toil of the Public Life at

filled

God

by

seek

not

that

gratifies pride,

earth,

but

means

of

make

things

all

the

bringing

a

soul

its Lord and Master. So there must be humility and

closer to

Judea.

If we wish to be like Christ we must learn from Him and

H'is

whose

and gives glory to self instead of to God, by fame and reputation, nor rest, nor leisure in the mere enjoyment of the things of the

nation,

in

must

it

which

den Life

the

to

soul

alone.

Christ

ity at

respond

to

yearning of the happiness can be

his

kingly leader Christ.

He must

creatures by their in-

in

rest

would

from finding

for by God, kept

a

call.

surrender of

Thy

God. "I wait

self to

uplifted

love's

stroke."

example the virtues of hu-

mility,

poverty

of

spirit,

the

retirement of the Hidden Life

and the incessant toil of the We must do good

Public Life.

not only for ourselves, but for others and for the glory of God.

HI Week. The Third Week is

After the

in. Designer Infinite, must thou char the wood before thou canst limn with it? For the soul to be made an

charist, the follower of Christ

signer

Ah

given to the Meditations on the Passion,

and death of Christ. Supper at Bethany and the institution of the Eu-

sufiferings

must go with

way in

instrument of the Infinite Deit must be tried in the

by the bread of Angels,

fed

King

his

of suffering.

He

the anguish of

Heart

—in

the

suffering its

until

it

self-love

is

and

imperfections removed by pain.

will share

in

of

fire

charred, and

in the

Why

His Divine

Agony

!

the

should

it

be so?

The

In-

Designer has so ordained. has given the example of

finite

He

Garden, he will feel the bitter pangs of His Sacred Body in the scourging by the soldiers

—

suffering.

"He was wounded

for our iniquities,

31

and "by His

he will know the pangs of His Divine mind in the cruel taste the fdll bitterness of the

we are healed." But we must apply His sufferings to our own souls. He merited, but we must individually apply

holocaust of suffering on the

His merit.

Calvary and in the three hours on the cross, and

for

to bear none, but

the death of the Crucified.

more,

we must

some

suffering.

bruises

.

crowning of thorns,

road

will

an^J

to

The

soul penetrates the depths

of Divine suffering and learns that to be like the

must share the

Lord

down His

He was

of

bitterness

It

would be all, and

to bear

He

His

the sufferings of the Master.

has borne

He

gave the

we

Shall to

He

His

for

life

laid

friend.

not obliged to do so,

love

•

easier for us

bear, at least,

greatest proof of love.

too,

it,

Him

Him.

constrained

be so unselfish as not

wish to suffer something for

Him who suffered us. He gave up Love

so

dictates that

give up

all

for

much

for

for

us.

all

we should

Him, even were

The proof of our love will be our likeness to our Crucified Lord. Ah Designer Infinite, must it

not necessary.

!

Thou char canst

hmn

IV Week. The

We

of

the

life

come."

ere

Thou

it?

clasp

my

hand,

and

The despondency and

gloom brought on by the

fail-

ure of creatures to respond to the seeking for happiness, by the failure of everything in life

He

who now

suf-

now

suf-

thought

fered pain and died, fers

"Rise,

are rejoicing because

our Master and King

wood

with IV.

Fourth Week of the Spiritual Exercises is joy with our Risen Lord. Gladness and happiness at His Resurrection are to be the keynote of all our thoughts. spirit

the

to bring content

gives

way

and happiness, to the consoing

"I, your God, am near. You thought all things were lost, but I have kept them stored up for

no more, but has risen to by His own power to die

no more. He will receive in His Sacred Humanity the reward ef all His sufferings and

you at home." The gloom that seemed to darken each joy and

3^

I

!

We

merits.

away

happiness

also,

be-

to take

cause by His resurrection

we

was it after all the shade of His hand caressing me? Is it not now all brightened by the joy and glory of the love that The love that I has come?

rejoice,

are assured of our resurrection

from from

the sin,

dead,

and freedom

pain and sorrow for-

evermore.

The

God gave

as

creatures which

in

drave away, when I drave my Lord away, I drave Love from

means are now

goodness to us, reflections of His Divine Beauty.

me, when

Where we made

Love Divine.

gifts of H'is

sacrifices

all

life,

for

His love, He has given us a hundredfold in return and life

I

Ah drave Him. Stay with me

forevermore

Now

that

I

to

Love, shall

eternal.

be

my

joy.

know Thee, Divine I

ever drive this

Love from me? May it not be said of me "Thou dravest Love from thee when thou dravest Me."

33

TOPICS FOR STUDY. In this

The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The

poem we may consider

separately

Thought. mystical thought. diction.

imagery.

wonderfully expressive words. vistas of thought

opened up.

soundness of the views of

life.

solidity of the doctrine.

depths of divine love sounded.

compassion of divine mercy portrayed. contrast of finite and infinite flashed forth. gentleness of Divine Providence in life's sorrows.

recompense to the soul that turneth 'back to God. insight into the Spiritual Life.

knowledge of the human heart. emptiness of all save God. subterfuges of the heart in evading God's love. futility

of the flight of the soul from God,

34

SELECTED WORDS— THOUGHTS—IDEAS. Down I

the arches of the years.

hid from

Him

mist of tears and under running

in the

laughter,

Vistaed hopes.

Shot adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears. Imperturbed pace, majestic instancy, deliberate speed.

Hearted casement. Trellised with intertwining charities.

The margent of

the world.

Gold gateways of the

stars.

Fretted to dulcet jars.

And

silvern chatter.

The

pale ports of the

Young skyey Tremendous

moon.

blossoms. lover.

Traitorous trueness.

Loyal

deceit.

Whistling mane Long savannahs Thunder driven

of every wind. of the blue.

Clanged His chariot 'thwart a heaven. Plashy with flying lightnings round the spurn of their feet.

Plucked them from

me by

the hair.

Delicate fellowship.

Wind-walled palace. 35

Azured

dais.

Taintless

way

is.

Lucent weeping.

Drew

«

the bolt of Nature's secrecies.

Swift importings in the wilful face of

Knew how

the clouds arise,

skies.

spumed of

the

wild sea

snortings,

Shapers of mine

own words.

With them joyed and was

The I

day's dead sanctities,

laughed

in the

Heaven and Its

ibereaven.

morning's eyes.

wept together. sweet tears were salt with mortal mine.

Red throb

My

I

of

its

sunset heart.

were hot on Heaven's grey cheek. Their sound is but their stir. They speak by silences. tears

Blue bosom

veil of sky,

shook the pillaring hours. Pulled my life upon me. My days have crackled and gone up in smoke. Puflfed and burst as sun-starts on a stream. I

Now And

fails

the

dream the dreamer,

the lute the lutanist.

Blossomy

twist,

swung the earth a trinket at my With heavy griefs so overplussed.

I

An

amaranthine weed.

Designer

infinite.

36

wrist.

Must thou char

My

the

wood

freshness spent

its

to limn with it?

wavering shower

the dust,

in

where tear-drippings stagnate. Dank thoughts that shiver upon the sighful branches of the mind.

Those shaken mists a space

Round

unsettle.

the half-glimpsed turrets slowly

With glooming

wash

again.

robes.

Must thy harvest That voice

fields be dunged with rotten death? round me like a bursting sea. shard on shard.

is

Shattered in

Seeing none but

Of

all

Whom

only

I

Is

I

make much

of naught.

man's clotted clay, the dingiest clot. wilt thou find to love ignoble thee, save Me, save

Me?

did but take, not for thy harms.

my

gloom after

all,

shade of His hand outstretched

caressingly?

Thou

dravest love from thee,

'A7

who

dravest Me.

EXPRESSIVE WORDS.

—Purple Immortal weed. — Immortal, unfading. Bruit — Casement—window. Clotted clay —clay with moisture. Dank—moist, heavy. Dulcet jars — Sweet discords. Fret — High notes held down on stringed instruments, shapes Fret— Means to also to metal Amaranth

flower.

Amaranthine noise.

in clots

guitar, etc.

strike

tease,

and

into

bars.

Fretted to dulcet jars.

Instancy

Limn

—

—urgent pressure.

^paint,

Margent

—

draw.

^border.

Owe— own. Pulp

—

inside.

—

Rind shell. Savannahs meadows, low, level, Shard piece of broken pottery.

— — Sun-starts — water flashing Wantoning—playing. the Wash — Wist— know,

treeless plains.

in the sunlight.

tide waters.

rise against, like

to

wit.

38

:

In

:

his

on

article

Francis

Thompson, Albert Cock

says

"Who, knowing

the 'Hound of Heaven,' will assert Church no longer voices the spiritual yearnings of the age? Francis Thompson is, in some respects, the greatest achievement of Catholicism in the nineteenth century. His poetry is resident in man. It is the repetition of the centuries." that the Catholic

.

And he continues "No wonder this moved asm. heart

It

.

.

the literary world to enthusi-

has been said that people will be learning

two

In truth

centuries hence.

its

by

it

qualities hardly

need analyzing. Many are the odes in our language which drag out a weary length and lack an inevitable finish, but not of this can

Time

is.

it

Our

be said:

tedious song should here have ending.

For immediacy of appeal and perfect conformity of it has no superior; in its astounding speed of phrase it reaches a new goal in our literature; its subtle and intricate rhymes are the secret rivets which bind together a poem unique in the singleness and greatness of its theme as a religious poem it stands for all the world and for all time, and, by a right royal of its own soul with Force,

;

claims peerage with the Psalmist for range, with St. Paul for virility of

argument and with

ness of thought and diction."

39

St.

Augustine for great-

I

8

1912

THE MSANY FRIKTING

CO.,

NEW

YORK.