Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins

Book Excerpt:...Fells or flanks of the voel, a veinOf the gospel proffer, a pressure, a principle, Christ's gift.5I kiss my handTo the stars, lovely-asunderStarlight, wafting him out of it; andGlow, glory in thunder;Kiss my hand to the dappled-with-damson west:Since, tho' he is under the world's splendour and wonder, His mystery must be instressed, stressed;For I greet him the days I meet him, and bless when I understand.6Not out of his blissSprings the stress feltNor first from heaven (and few know this)Swings the stroke dealt--Stroke and a stress that stars and storms deliver,That guilt is hushed by, hearts are flushed by and melt-- But it rides time like riding a river(And here the faithful waver, the faithless fable and miss),7It dates from dayOf his going in Galilee;Warm-laid grave of a womb-life grey;Manger, maiden's knee;The dense and the driven Passion, and frightful sweat...