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(That Nature Is A Heraclitean
Fire)
I am all at once what Christ is, ' since he was what I
am, and
This Jack, joke, poor potsherd, ' patch, matchwood, immortal
diamond,
Is immortal diamond.
Cloud-puffball, torn tufts, tossed pillows ' flaunt forth,
then chevy on an air-
built thoroughfare: heaven-roysterers, in gay-gangs ' they
throng; they glitter in marches.
Down roughcast, down dazzling whitewash, ' wherever an elm
arches,
Shivelights and shadowtackle in long ' lashes lace, lance,
and pair.
Delightfully the bright wind boisterous ' ropes, wrestles,
beats earth bare
Of yestertempest's creases; ' in pool and rut peel parches
Squandering ooze to squeezed ' dough, crust, dust; stanches,
starches
Squadroned masks and manmarks ' treadmire toil there
Footfretted in it. Million-fueled, ' nature's bonfire burns
on.
Nature's bonfire burns on.
I am all at once what Christ is, ' since he was what I am,
and
This Jack, joke, poor potsherd, ' patch, matchwood, immortal
diamond,
Is immortal diamond.
But quench her bonniest, dearest ' to her, her clearest-selved
spark
Man, how fast his firedint, ' his mark on mind, is gone!
Both are in an unfathomable, all is in an enormous dark
Drowned. O pity and indig ' nation! Manshape, that shone
Sheer off, disseveral, a star, ' death blots black out;
nor mark
Is any of him at all so stark
But vastness blurs and time ' beats level. Enough! the Resurrection,
A heart's-clarion! Away grief's gasping, ' joyless days,
dejection.
Across my foundering deck shone
A beacon, an eternal beam. ' Flesh fade, and mortal trash
Fall to the residuary worm; ' world's wildfire, leave but
ash:
In a flash, at a trumpet crash,
I am all at once what Christ is, ' since he was what I am,
and
This Jack, joke, poor potsherd, ' patch, matchwood, immortal
diamond,
Is immortal diamond. |
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© Sean O'Leary 2005-2020 |
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O R I G I N A L P O E M |
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That Nature Is A Heraclitean Fire
Cloud-puffball, torn tufts, tossed pillows ' flaunt forth,
then chevy on an air-
built thoroughfare: heaven-roysterers, in gay-gangs ' they
throng; they glitter in marches.
Down roughcast, down dazzling whitewash, ' wherever an elm
arches,
Shivelights and shadowtackle in long ' lashes lace, lance,
and pair.
Delightfully the bright wind boisterous ' ropes, wrestles,
beats earth bare
Of yestertempest’s creases; in pool and rut peel parches
Squandering ooze to squeezed ' dough, crust, dust; stanches,
starches
Squadroned masks and manmarks ' treadmire toil there
Footfretted in it. Million-fueled, ' nature’s bonfire
burns on.
But quench her bonniest, dearest ' to her, her clearest-selved
spark
Man, how fast his firedint, ' his mark on mind, is gone!
Both are in an unfathomable, all is in an enormous dark
Drowned. O pity and indig ' nation! Manshape, that shone
Sheer off, disseveral, a star, ' death blots black out;
nor mark
Is any of him at all so stark
But vastness blurs and time ' beats level. Enough! the Resurrection,
A heart’s-clarion! Away grief’s gasping, ' joyless
days, dejection.
Across my foundering deck shone
A beacon, an eternal beam. ' Flesh fade, and mortal trash
Fall to the residuary worm; ' world’s wildfire, leave
but ash:
In a flash, at a trumpet crash,
I am all at once what Christ is, ' since he was what I am,
and
This Jack, joke, poor potsherd, ' patch, matchwood, immortal
diamond,
Is immortal diamond. |
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Gerard
Manley Hopkins |
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