| Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89). Poems. 1918. | | | | 34. ‘As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies dráw fláme’ | | | | | | AS kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies dráw fláme; | | | As tumbled over rim in roundy wells | | | Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s | | | Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name; | | | Each mortal thing does one thing and the same: | 5 | | Deals out that being indoors each one dwells; | | | Selves—goes itself; myself it speaks and spells, | | | Crying Whát I do is me: for that I came. | | | | | Í say móre: the just man justices; | | | Kéeps gráce: thát keeps all his goings graces; | 10 | | Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is— | | | Chríst—for Christ plays in ten thousand places, | | | Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his | | | To the Father through the features of men’s faces. | | | | | See Notes. | | | | |
