The Mind
The Candle Indoors
From Poems (1918)
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?
Cite this poem
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/.
Read this poem with the Codex →