As Kingfishers Catch Fire
As Kingfishers Catch Fire
Original Text
The Later Poetic Manuscripts of Gerard Manley Hopkins in Facsimile, ed. Norman H. MacKenzie (New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1991): 106-07. PR 4803 H44A6 1991 Robarts Library
1As king fishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
2 As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
3 Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's
4Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
5Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
6 Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
7 Selves -- goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
8Crying What I do is me: for that I came.
9 I say more: the just man justices;
10 Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces;
11Acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is --
12 Christ. For Christ plays in ten thousand places,
13Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
14 To the Father through the features of men's faces.
Publication Start Year
1918
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 1996-2000.
Rhyme
Form