A Study of Francis Thompson's Hound of Heaven Book PDF, ePub eBook

Join our eBook service for unlimited books & audiobooks. Get a free 7 day subscription! ↓↓↓↓↓


Book Descriptions:



A. STUDY OF FRANCIS THOMPSON'S HOUND OF HEAVEN



This great poem, strange to say, is comparatively little known. It is the sweetest, deepest, strongest song ever written in the English tongue.

Among some of the great odes are ''Alexander's Feast," Dryden, ''Ode on the Nativity," Milton, "Intimations of Immortality," Wordsworth. To say Thompson's poem is one of the great odes is to place it unranked among them. In my judgment it is greater.

I do not hesitate to say with the Bookman that "the Hound of Heaven seems to us, on the whole, the most wonderful lyric in the language. It fingers all the stops of the spirit . . . hut under all, the still sad music of humanity," and with the Times, that "people will still be learning it by heart two hundred years hence, for it has about it the unique thing that makes for immortality. It is the return of the nineteenth century to Thomas a Kempis."

With the Spectator, I ask, "is there any religious poem carrying so much of the passion of penitence—an ode in





the manner of Crashaw, and in the comparison, it more than holds its own."

With Coventry Patmore I marvel at the "profound thoughts and far-fetched splendor of imagery, qualities which ought to place him in the permanent ranks of fame," while even Burne-Jones cries out ''Since Gabriel's Blessed Damosel no mystical words have so touched me as the Hound of Heaven."

And may we not add the words of G. K. Chesterton, "with Francis Thompson we lose the greatest poetic energy since Browning. In his poetry as in the poetry of the universe, you can work infinitely out and out, but yet infinitely in and in. These two infinities are the mark of a great poet, and he was a great poet."

"The great poetry of it (The Hound of Heaven) transcended in itself and in its influence all conventions," says Wilfrid Meynell, "so that it won the love of a Catholic Mystic like Coventry Patmore; was included by Canon Beeching in his Lyra Sacra among its older high compeers; and gave new heart to quite another manner of man, Edward Burne-Jones."

It would be difficult to find another poem in the language that gives such food for thought, so satisfying, so new, that can be read and reread, and always with a relish and a discovery of a new application, or the glimmer of an unseen light. In many poems, one reading suffices, and the mind is sated, for the whole depth is plummeted and all is revealed in a single view. It is not so in this poem. There is a depth that can be sounded, and deeper depths are still there. The vision takes in the view, but other details arise that charm, or surprise, or startle, or evoke admiration at the spiritual insight into the workings of the soul. It gives great and wide range of thought within a small compass, and a deep





knowledge of the human soul, of the meanings of life, of the soul's relation to God and of other beings not God, and of the hold of God's love upon the soul in spite of its fleeing from Him to the creatures of His hand.

It is happiness the human soul is ever yearning for. It never ceases its quest for happiness. Night and day, year after year, it is grasping after happiness. The weary days of labor are borne to gain the wealth with which _„^^it thinks it may buy happiness. The days of suffering '>^«and pain are spent in watching and waiting for the agony to pass, that happiness may come. It looks for it in every creature, in the earth, in the sea, in the air. The soul asks all these things—wherein is your happiness—and the answer of earth, air, sea is "He made us." '*We are for Him, for His glory." So the soul is looking for happiness, and in all these things it will not find happiness. It will find happiness only in God. And yet instead of seeking it in God, it turns away from Him and seeks it in the creature, something that is not God. And God is ever seeking that soul which is running away from Him. Wherever it runs, the sound of those feet, following ever after, is

A Study of Francis Thompson's Hound of Heaven by John Francis Xavier O'Conor

From reader reviews:

Belinda Timmer:

Within other case, little folks like to read book A Study of Francis Thompson's Hound of Heaven. You can choose the best book if you love reading a book. So long as we know about how is important a new book A Study of Francis Thompson's Hound of Heaven. You can add knowledge and of course you can around the world with a book. Absolutely right, since from book you can know everything! From your country right up until foreign or abroad you will find yourself known. About simple point until wonderful thing you can know that. In this era, we can open a book or maybe searching by internet gadget. It is called e-book. You can use it when you feel weary to go to the library. Let's read.

Augustine Klotz:

What do you regarding book? It is not important along? Or just adding material when you require something to explain what yours problem? How about your time? Or are you busy man or woman? If you don't have spare time to try and do others business, it is give you a sense of feeling bored faster. And you have free time? What did you do? Every individual has many questions above. They should answer that question because just their can do that will. It said that about publication. Book is familiar on every person. Yes, it is correct. Because start from on kindergarten until university need this kind of A Study of Francis Thompson's Hound of Heaven to read.

Dennis Sellers:

This A Study of Francis Thompson's Hound of Heaven usually are reliable for you who want to certainly be a successful person, why. The main reason of this A Study of Francis Thompson's Hound of Heaven can be one of many great books you must have is definitely giving you more than just simple reading food but feed you actually with information that might be will shock your prior knowledge. This book is actually handy, you can bring it everywhere and whenever your conditions both in e-book and printed people. Beside that this A Study of Francis Thompson's Hound of Heaven giving you an enormous of experience for instance rich vocabulary, giving you trial of critical thinking that we realize it useful in your day pastime. So , let's have it and luxuriate in reading.

Tom Salgado:

Your reading 6th sense will not betray a person, why because this A Study of Francis Thompson's Hound of Heaven guide written by well-known writer whose to say well how to make book that can be understand by anyone who have read the book. Written inside good manner for you, leaking every ideas and publishing skill only for eliminate your personal hunger then you still question A Study of Francis Thompson's Hound of Heaven as good book not merely by the cover but also from the content. This is one book that can break don't judge book by its include, so do you still needing an additional sixth sense to pick this specific!? Oh come on your examining sixth sense already told you so why you have to listening to one more sixth sense.