The Hand and the Foot
The Hand and the Foot
Original Text
Jones Very, Poems and Essays (Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1888): 128. Internet Archive
1The hand and foot that stir not, they shall find
2Sooner than all the rightful place to go;
3Now in their motion free as roving wind,
4Though first no snail more limited and slow;
5I mark them full of labor all the day,
6Each active motion made in perfect rest;
7They cannot from their path mistaken stray,
8Though 't is not theirs, yet in it they are blest;
9The bird has not their hidden track found out,
10Nor cunning fox, though full of art he be;
11It is the way unseen, the certain route,
12Where ever bound, yet thou art ever free;
13The path of Him, whose perfect law of love
14Bids spheres and atoms in just order move.
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire / Sharine Leung
RPO Edition
2012
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