| Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89). Poems. 1918. |
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| 29. Felix Randal |
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| FELIX RANDAL the farrier, O he is dead then? my duty all ended, | |
| Who have watched his mould of man, big-boned and hardy-handsome | |
| Pining, pining, till time when reason rambled in it and some | |
| Fatal four disorders, fleshed there, all contended? | |
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| Sickness broke him. Impatient he cursed at first, but mended | 5 |
| Being anointed and all; though a heavenlier heart began some | |
| Months earlier, since I had our sweet reprieve and ransom | |
| Tendered to him. Ah well, God rest him all road ever he offended! | |
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| This seeing the sick endears them to us, us too it endears. | |
| My tongue had taught thee comfort, touch had quenched thy tears, | 10 |
| Thy tears that touched my heart, child, Felix, poor Felix Randal; | |
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| How far from then forethought of, all thy more boisterous years, | |
| When thou at the random grim forge, powerful amidst peers, | |
| Didst fettle for the great grey drayhorse his bright and battering sandal! | |
| | | See Notes. |
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