The Mind

The Candle Indoors

by Gerard Manley Hopkins 1844–1889

From Poems (1918)

The Mind

SOME candle clear burns somewhere I come by.
I muse at how its being puts blissful back
With yellowy moisture mild night's blear-all black,
Or to-fro tender trambeams truckle at the eye.
By that window what task what fingers ply,
I plod wondering, a-wanting, just for lack
Of answer the eagerer a-wanting Jessy or Jack
There God to aggrándise, God to glorify.--

Come you indoors, come home; your fading fire
Mend first and vital candle in close heart's vault:
You there are master, do your own desire;
What hinders? Are you beam-blind, yet to a fault
In a neighbour deft-handed? Are you that liar
And cast by conscience out, spendsavour salt?

MLA

Hopkins, Gerard Manley. “The Candle Indoors.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/hopkins/25/.

Chicago

Hopkins, Gerard Manley. “The Candle Indoors.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/hopkins/25/.

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