If you or someone you know is battling any type of addiction, be it social media, pornography, drugs, or alcohol, know that the power of Jesus is available to you, and he can help you rise above your addiction.
In 1890, Francis Thompson wrote his most famous poem, "The Hound of Heaven”. In this poem, Thompson, who was homeless and addicted to opium, describes how addiction made him flee God’s presence. The poem describes the gloom and shame that surrounded Thompson as he continually hid from God. Yet, in God’s love for him, he never left him. Thompson’s poem describes God in endless pursuit. Never was there a moment when Thompson was abandoned to his addiction.
Isaiah 41:10 NIV] So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Psalms 23:4 NIV Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
Psalms 46:1 NIV God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
Here’s the way the poem starts;
I fled Him, down the nights and down the days; I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears I hid from Him.
Thompson describes how God was always after him, always longing for him, always desiring for him;
But with unhurrying chase, And unperterbed pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instance
They beat, and a voice beat, More instant than the feet –
“All things betray thee, who betrayest me.”
Addiction makes us feel completely alone in our struggle, powerless against the drives and impulses within. Addiction tells us that satisfaction will be found in the next drink or the latest fix when reality is the exact opposite. Like Adam and Eve believing that the tempting fruit would give them all they desired. Addiction leads us into shame, not salvation, death, not life.
Addiction, in all its forms, destroys us. We often think that because we haven’t been delivered that God has abandoned us, when in truth, God continues to pursue us. Addiction tells us that our sins completely remove God’s love, making us completely irredeemable, when the truth is that God always loves us.
Romans 5:8 NIV] But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
God has unconditional love for all people, regardless of their circumstances or struggles. His love is not based on our performance or worthiness, but on His divine nature.
Scripture promises that nothing can separate us from the love of God found in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:31-39 NIV [31] What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? [32] He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? [33] Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. [34] Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. [35] Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? [36] As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” [37] No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. [38] For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, [39] neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Addiction doesn’t have to be the defining voice in your life. Dare to believe this truth: God promises to work through the prayers of the faithful. God promises to be endlessly forgiving and eternally patient. God promises to heal.
Let’s Pray
Almighty God, you are endlessly forgiving, abounding in love, and steadfast in holy patience, and you know those who are battling addiction of any kind. You know the hold that addiction can have, the lies that it tells, and the inward strength it can rob us of. Lord, in your holy name, we ask that you reach into the lives of all who suffer addiction and flood their lives with your holy light. Help them see your presence through the fog and the haze that surrounds them. Stir in their hearts a desire for change and healing. More than anything, may you remind those who suffer from addiction that the power of the cross is such that you dwell with them in the worst moments of their life, but in that place, you promise to heal, restore, and lead the train of all bound in captivity to new life. Place this verse on their hearts: “I can do all things, through Christ who strengthens me.” May this verse be a call to sobriety and recovery. Lord, I pray that you will bring agents of love and healing into the lives of each person suffering from addiction. Build a community of care around them to help them move into the life that you call them to.
Lord, we ask all this in the name of the one who sets us free, Jesus our Lord. Amen.
If you or anyone you know is battling addiction, I urge you and them to reach out to someone that can help and support. No matter where you live there are local agencies for support and recovery. There are people waiting to help you end your addiction and live a new life. The way forward isn’t just to muscle through your addiction by yourself. You are not alone.
The Hound of Heaven the Poem
Here are three versions of the original poem converted to modern English, followed by the original version as written and published.
The Hound of Heaven
I ran from Him down darkened days and nights, Across the years, I fled His loving sight. I lost myself in winding, twisted ways, A labyrinth of thoughts, a maze of nights.
He chased me, though, with tireless, gentle pace, A Hound of Love, relentless in His chase. He followed me through every doubt and fear, And every dark, despairing, hidden place.
I tried to hide in pleasure, noise, and sin, To drown His voice in worldly, empty din. But still He sought me, patient, ever near, His love, a beacon, piercing through the thin.
At last, exhausted, I could flee no more, I fell before Him, weary to the core. He gathered me, a lost and wounded soul, And healed my wounds, forevermore.
The Hound of Heaven
I ran from Him down endless nights and days, Through years' long arches, down mind's winding ways. I fled from Him, a lost and weary soul, Through life's maze, beyond my own control.
He chased me, though, a relentless, holy Hound, Across the world, on sacred, hallowed ground. His love pursued, a beacon in the night, A steadfast flame, a guiding, hopeful light.
I sought to hide in shadows, dark and deep, But still He followed, never ceased to keep. His gentle voice, a whisper in the air, A call to turn, to leave my dark despair.
I tried to outrun Him, to escape His grace, But found no refuge, no secure, safe place. His love, a net, encircled me around, A tender trap, where peace at last was found.
The Hound of Heaven
I ran from Him down darkened days and nights, Across the years, I fled His loving sight. Through winding ways of my confused mind, I sought escape, a peace I couldn’t find.
He chased me still, relentless, ever near, A gentle Hound, dispelling doubt and fear. Across the fields of joy and fields of pain, His love pursued, easing every strain.
I tried to hide in shadows, dark and deep, But still He followed, never ceased to keep. His tender gaze pierced through my soul’s disguise, And drew me forth to meet His loving eyes.
I cannot flee, nor can I hope to hide, His love surrounds, a boundless, endless tide. So I surrender, yield my weary heart, And let His love, His grace, tear me apart
The Hound of Heaven (Original)
I FLED Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped;
And shot, precipitated,
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmèd fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
But with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbèd pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat—and a Voice beat
More instant than the Feet--
‘All things betray thee, who betrayest Me.’
I pleaded, outlaw-wise,
By many a hearted casement, curtained red,
Trellised with intertwining charities;
(For, though I knew His love Who followèd,
Yet was I sore adread
Lest, having Him, I must have naught beside).
But, if one little casement parted wide,
The gust of His approach would clash it to.
Fear wist not to evade, as Love wist to pursue.
Across the margent of the world I fled,
And troubled the gold gateways of the stars,
Smiting for shelter on their clangèd bars;
Fretted to dulcet jars
And silvern chatter the pale ports o’ the moon.
I said to Dawn: Be sudden—to Eve: Be soon;
With thy young skiey blossoms heap me over
From this tremendous Lover--
Float thy vague veil about me, lest He see!
I tempted all His servitors, but to find
My own betrayal in their constancy,
In faith to Him their fickleness to me,
Their traitorous trueness, and their loyal deceit.
To all swift things for swiftness did I sue;
Clung to the whistling mane of every wind.
But whether they swept, smoothly fleet,
The long savannahs of the blue;
Or whether, Thunder-driven,
They clanged his chariot ’thwart a heaven,
Plashy with flying lightnings round the spurn o’ their feet:--
Fear wist not to evade as Love wist to pursue.
Still with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbèd pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
Came on the following Feet,
And a Voice above their beat--
‘Naught shelters thee, who wilt not shelter Me.’
I sought no more that after which I strayed
In face of man or maid;
But still within the little children’s eyes
Seems something, something that replies,
They at least are for me, surely for me!
I turned me to them very wistfully;
But just as their young eyes grew sudden fair
With dawning answers there,
Their angel plucked them from me by the hair.
‘Come then, ye other children, Nature’s—share
With me’ (said I) ‘your delicate fellowship;
Let me greet you lip to lip,
Let me twine with you caresses,
Wantoning
With our Lady-Mother’s vagrant tresses,
Banqueting
With her in her wind-walled palace,
Underneath her azured daïs,
Quaffing, as your taintless way is,
From a chalice
Lucent-weeping out of the dayspring.’
So it was done:
I in their delicate fellowship was one--
Drew the bolt of Nature’s secrecies.
I knew all the swift importings
On the wilful face of skies;
I knew how the clouds arise
Spumèd of the wild sea-snortings;
All that’s born or dies
Rose and drooped with; made them shapers
Of mine own moods, or wailful or divine;
With them joyed and was bereaven.
I was heavy with the even,
When she lit her glimmering tapers
Round the day’s dead sanctities.
I laughed in the morning’s eyes.
I triumphed and I saddened with all weather,
Heaven and I wept together,
And its sweet tears were salt with mortal mine;
Against the red throb of its sunset-heart
I laid my own to beat,
And share commingling heat;
But not by that, by that, was eased my human smart.
In vain my tears were wet on Heaven’s grey cheek.
For ah! we know not what each other says,
These things and I; in sound I speak--
Their sound is but their stir, they speak by silences.
Nature, poor stepdame, cannot slake my drouth;
Let her, if she would owe me,
Drop yon blue bosom-veil of sky, and show me
The breasts o’ her tenderness:
Never did any milk of hers once bless
My thirsting mouth.
Nigh and nigh draws the chase,
With unperturbèd pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy;
And past those noisèd Feet
A voice comes yet more fleet--
‘Lo! naught contents thee, who content’st not Me!’
Naked I wait Thy love’s uplifted stroke!
My harness piece by piece Thou hast hewn from me,
And smitten me to my knee;
I am defenceless utterly.
I slept, methinks, and woke,
And, slowly gazing, find me stripped in sleep.
In the rash lustihead of my young powers,
I shook the pillaring hours
And pulled my life upon me; grimed with smears,
I stand amid the dust o’ the mounded years--
My mangled youth lies dead beneath the heap.
My days have crackled and gone up in smoke,
Have puffed and burst as sun-starts on a stream.
Yea, faileth now even dream
The dreamer, and the lute the lutanist;
Even the linked fantasies, in whose blossomy twist
I swung the earth a trinket at my wrist,
Are yielding; cords of all too weak account
For earth with heavy griefs so overplussed.
Ah! is Thy love indeed
A weed, albeit an amaranthine weed,
Suffering no flowers except its own to mount?
Ah! must--
Designer infinite!--
Ah! must Thou char the wood ere Thou canst limn with it?
My freshness spent its wavering shower i’ the dust;
And now my heart is as a broken fount,
Wherein tear-drippings stagnate, spilt down ever
From the dank thoughts that shiver
Upon the sighful branches of my mind.
Such is; what is to be?
The pulp so bitter, how shall taste the rind?
I dimly guess what Time in mists confounds;
Yet ever and anon a trumpet sounds
From the hid battlements of Eternity;
Those shaken mists a space unsettle, then
Round the half-glimpsèd turrets slowly wash again.
But not ere him who summoneth
I first have seen, enwound
With glooming robes purpureal, cypress-crowned;
His name I know, and what his trumpet saith.
Whether man’s heart or life it be which yields
Thee harvest, must Thy harvest-fields
Be dunged with rotten death?
Now of that long pursuit
Comes on at hand the bruit;
That Voice is round me like a bursting sea:
‘And is thy earth so marred,
Shattered in shard on shard?
Lo, all things fly thee, for thou fliest Me!
Strange, piteous, futile thing!
Wherefore should any set thee love apart?
Seeing none but I makes much of naught’ (He said),
‘And human love needs human meriting:
How hast thou merited--
Of all man’s clotted clay the dingiest clot?
Alack, thou knowest not
How little worthy of any love thou art!
Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee,
Save Me, save only Me?
All which I took from thee I did but take,
Not for thy harms,
But just that thou might’st seek it in My arms.
All which thy child’s mistake
Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home:
Rise, clasp My hand, and come!’
Halts by me that footfall:
Is my gloom, after all,
Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly?
‘Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,
I am He Whom thou seekest!
Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me.’
In 1890, Francis Thompson wrote his most famous poem, "The Hound of Heaven”. In this poem, Thompson, who was homeless and addicted to opium, describes how addiction made him flee God’s presence. The poem describes the gloom and shame that surrounded Thompson as he continually hid from God. Yet, in God’s love for him, he never left him. Thompson’s poem describes God in endless pursuit. Never was there a moment when Thompson was abandoned to his addiction.
Isaiah 41:10 NIV] So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Psalms 23:4 NIV Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
Psalms 46:1 NIV God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
Here’s the way the poem starts;
I fled Him, down the nights and down the days; I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears I hid from Him.
Thompson describes how God was always after him, always longing for him, always desiring for him;
But with unhurrying chase, And unperterbed pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instance
They beat, and a voice beat, More instant than the feet –
“All things betray thee, who betrayest me.”
Addiction makes us feel completely alone in our struggle, powerless against the drives and impulses within. Addiction tells us that satisfaction will be found in the next drink or the latest fix when reality is the exact opposite. Like Adam and Eve believing that the tempting fruit would give them all they desired. Addiction leads us into shame, not salvation, death, not life.
Addiction, in all its forms, destroys us. We often think that because we haven’t been delivered that God has abandoned us, when in truth, God continues to pursue us. Addiction tells us that our sins completely remove God’s love, making us completely irredeemable, when the truth is that God always loves us.
Romans 5:8 NIV] But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
God has unconditional love for all people, regardless of their circumstances or struggles. His love is not based on our performance or worthiness, but on His divine nature.
Scripture promises that nothing can separate us from the love of God found in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:31-39 NIV [31] What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? [32] He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? [33] Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. [34] Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. [35] Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? [36] As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” [37] No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. [38] For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, [39] neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Addiction doesn’t have to be the defining voice in your life. Dare to believe this truth: God promises to work through the prayers of the faithful. God promises to be endlessly forgiving and eternally patient. God promises to heal.
Let’s Pray
Almighty God, you are endlessly forgiving, abounding in love, and steadfast in holy patience, and you know those who are battling addiction of any kind. You know the hold that addiction can have, the lies that it tells, and the inward strength it can rob us of. Lord, in your holy name, we ask that you reach into the lives of all who suffer addiction and flood their lives with your holy light. Help them see your presence through the fog and the haze that surrounds them. Stir in their hearts a desire for change and healing. More than anything, may you remind those who suffer from addiction that the power of the cross is such that you dwell with them in the worst moments of their life, but in that place, you promise to heal, restore, and lead the train of all bound in captivity to new life. Place this verse on their hearts: “I can do all things, through Christ who strengthens me.” May this verse be a call to sobriety and recovery. Lord, I pray that you will bring agents of love and healing into the lives of each person suffering from addiction. Build a community of care around them to help them move into the life that you call them to.
Lord, we ask all this in the name of the one who sets us free, Jesus our Lord. Amen.
If you or anyone you know is battling addiction, I urge you and them to reach out to someone that can help and support. No matter where you live there are local agencies for support and recovery. There are people waiting to help you end your addiction and live a new life. The way forward isn’t just to muscle through your addiction by yourself. You are not alone.
The Hound of Heaven the Poem
Here are three versions of the original poem converted to modern English, followed by the original version as written and published.
The Hound of Heaven
I ran from Him down darkened days and nights, Across the years, I fled His loving sight. I lost myself in winding, twisted ways, A labyrinth of thoughts, a maze of nights.
He chased me, though, with tireless, gentle pace, A Hound of Love, relentless in His chase. He followed me through every doubt and fear, And every dark, despairing, hidden place.
I tried to hide in pleasure, noise, and sin, To drown His voice in worldly, empty din. But still He sought me, patient, ever near, His love, a beacon, piercing through the thin.
At last, exhausted, I could flee no more, I fell before Him, weary to the core. He gathered me, a lost and wounded soul, And healed my wounds, forevermore.
The Hound of Heaven
I ran from Him down endless nights and days, Through years' long arches, down mind's winding ways. I fled from Him, a lost and weary soul, Through life's maze, beyond my own control.
He chased me, though, a relentless, holy Hound, Across the world, on sacred, hallowed ground. His love pursued, a beacon in the night, A steadfast flame, a guiding, hopeful light.
I sought to hide in shadows, dark and deep, But still He followed, never ceased to keep. His gentle voice, a whisper in the air, A call to turn, to leave my dark despair.
I tried to outrun Him, to escape His grace, But found no refuge, no secure, safe place. His love, a net, encircled me around, A tender trap, where peace at last was found.
The Hound of Heaven
I ran from Him down darkened days and nights, Across the years, I fled His loving sight. Through winding ways of my confused mind, I sought escape, a peace I couldn’t find.
He chased me still, relentless, ever near, A gentle Hound, dispelling doubt and fear. Across the fields of joy and fields of pain, His love pursued, easing every strain.
I tried to hide in shadows, dark and deep, But still He followed, never ceased to keep. His tender gaze pierced through my soul’s disguise, And drew me forth to meet His loving eyes.
I cannot flee, nor can I hope to hide, His love surrounds, a boundless, endless tide. So I surrender, yield my weary heart, And let His love, His grace, tear me apart
The Hound of Heaven (Original)
I FLED Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped;
And shot, precipitated,
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmèd fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
But with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbèd pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat—and a Voice beat
More instant than the Feet--
‘All things betray thee, who betrayest Me.’
I pleaded, outlaw-wise,
By many a hearted casement, curtained red,
Trellised with intertwining charities;
(For, though I knew His love Who followèd,
Yet was I sore adread
Lest, having Him, I must have naught beside).
But, if one little casement parted wide,
The gust of His approach would clash it to.
Fear wist not to evade, as Love wist to pursue.
Across the margent of the world I fled,
And troubled the gold gateways of the stars,
Smiting for shelter on their clangèd bars;
Fretted to dulcet jars
And silvern chatter the pale ports o’ the moon.
I said to Dawn: Be sudden—to Eve: Be soon;
With thy young skiey blossoms heap me over
From this tremendous Lover--
Float thy vague veil about me, lest He see!
I tempted all His servitors, but to find
My own betrayal in their constancy,
In faith to Him their fickleness to me,
Their traitorous trueness, and their loyal deceit.
To all swift things for swiftness did I sue;
Clung to the whistling mane of every wind.
But whether they swept, smoothly fleet,
The long savannahs of the blue;
Or whether, Thunder-driven,
They clanged his chariot ’thwart a heaven,
Plashy with flying lightnings round the spurn o’ their feet:--
Fear wist not to evade as Love wist to pursue.
Still with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbèd pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
Came on the following Feet,
And a Voice above their beat--
‘Naught shelters thee, who wilt not shelter Me.’
I sought no more that after which I strayed
In face of man or maid;
But still within the little children’s eyes
Seems something, something that replies,
They at least are for me, surely for me!
I turned me to them very wistfully;
But just as their young eyes grew sudden fair
With dawning answers there,
Their angel plucked them from me by the hair.
‘Come then, ye other children, Nature’s—share
With me’ (said I) ‘your delicate fellowship;
Let me greet you lip to lip,
Let me twine with you caresses,
Wantoning
With our Lady-Mother’s vagrant tresses,
Banqueting
With her in her wind-walled palace,
Underneath her azured daïs,
Quaffing, as your taintless way is,
From a chalice
Lucent-weeping out of the dayspring.’
So it was done:
I in their delicate fellowship was one--
Drew the bolt of Nature’s secrecies.
I knew all the swift importings
On the wilful face of skies;
I knew how the clouds arise
Spumèd of the wild sea-snortings;
All that’s born or dies
Rose and drooped with; made them shapers
Of mine own moods, or wailful or divine;
With them joyed and was bereaven.
I was heavy with the even,
When she lit her glimmering tapers
Round the day’s dead sanctities.
I laughed in the morning’s eyes.
I triumphed and I saddened with all weather,
Heaven and I wept together,
And its sweet tears were salt with mortal mine;
Against the red throb of its sunset-heart
I laid my own to beat,
And share commingling heat;
But not by that, by that, was eased my human smart.
In vain my tears were wet on Heaven’s grey cheek.
For ah! we know not what each other says,
These things and I; in sound I speak--
Their sound is but their stir, they speak by silences.
Nature, poor stepdame, cannot slake my drouth;
Let her, if she would owe me,
Drop yon blue bosom-veil of sky, and show me
The breasts o’ her tenderness:
Never did any milk of hers once bless
My thirsting mouth.
Nigh and nigh draws the chase,
With unperturbèd pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy;
And past those noisèd Feet
A voice comes yet more fleet--
‘Lo! naught contents thee, who content’st not Me!’
Naked I wait Thy love’s uplifted stroke!
My harness piece by piece Thou hast hewn from me,
And smitten me to my knee;
I am defenceless utterly.
I slept, methinks, and woke,
And, slowly gazing, find me stripped in sleep.
In the rash lustihead of my young powers,
I shook the pillaring hours
And pulled my life upon me; grimed with smears,
I stand amid the dust o’ the mounded years--
My mangled youth lies dead beneath the heap.
My days have crackled and gone up in smoke,
Have puffed and burst as sun-starts on a stream.
Yea, faileth now even dream
The dreamer, and the lute the lutanist;
Even the linked fantasies, in whose blossomy twist
I swung the earth a trinket at my wrist,
Are yielding; cords of all too weak account
For earth with heavy griefs so overplussed.
Ah! is Thy love indeed
A weed, albeit an amaranthine weed,
Suffering no flowers except its own to mount?
Ah! must--
Designer infinite!--
Ah! must Thou char the wood ere Thou canst limn with it?
My freshness spent its wavering shower i’ the dust;
And now my heart is as a broken fount,
Wherein tear-drippings stagnate, spilt down ever
From the dank thoughts that shiver
Upon the sighful branches of my mind.
Such is; what is to be?
The pulp so bitter, how shall taste the rind?
I dimly guess what Time in mists confounds;
Yet ever and anon a trumpet sounds
From the hid battlements of Eternity;
Those shaken mists a space unsettle, then
Round the half-glimpsèd turrets slowly wash again.
But not ere him who summoneth
I first have seen, enwound
With glooming robes purpureal, cypress-crowned;
His name I know, and what his trumpet saith.
Whether man’s heart or life it be which yields
Thee harvest, must Thy harvest-fields
Be dunged with rotten death?
Now of that long pursuit
Comes on at hand the bruit;
That Voice is round me like a bursting sea:
‘And is thy earth so marred,
Shattered in shard on shard?
Lo, all things fly thee, for thou fliest Me!
Strange, piteous, futile thing!
Wherefore should any set thee love apart?
Seeing none but I makes much of naught’ (He said),
‘And human love needs human meriting:
How hast thou merited--
Of all man’s clotted clay the dingiest clot?
Alack, thou knowest not
How little worthy of any love thou art!
Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee,
Save Me, save only Me?
All which I took from thee I did but take,
Not for thy harms,
But just that thou might’st seek it in My arms.
All which thy child’s mistake
Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home:
Rise, clasp My hand, and come!’
Halts by me that footfall:
Is my gloom, after all,
Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly?
‘Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,
I am He Whom thou seekest!
Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me.’
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