As Kingfishers Catch Fire ~ Gerard Manley Hopkins

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)As Kingfishers Catch Fire



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.