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Francis Thompson’s “The Hound of Heaven”:This poem is published by itself in book form as The Hound of Heaven.
London: Penguin, 1995. I use this printing and observe thus:Ultimately, “The Hound of Heaven” relates to the hymn, “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” The last verse of that song reads: “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love Here’s my heart, O take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above.”Both writers knew their own weaknesses and their need to seal their relationship with God but, not depending on God’s strength instead, fell away. This sad news does not change the fact that “The Hound of Heaven” is one amazing poem. Below, selections:Francis Thompson says, “I said to the dawn, be sudden; to eve, Be soon” (p4). This eagerness for time to fly compares to the French army’s in Shakespeare’s Henry V: “would that it were day”, but the purpose differs. The French armies were (without cause, it turned out), eager for battle, while the narrator here wants to face either day or night. He relates more to David’s psalm wherein, under persecution, he simply wants time to fly.Thompson faces the old truth, “‘Naught shelters thee, who wilt not shelter me’” (p5). As the old spiritual says, “There’s no hiding place down here.” He also considers God’s question, “‘How hast thou merited—of all man’s clotted clay the dingiest clot?’” (p9)—how do you benefit if you gain the whole world, yet lose your own soul? Mankind viewed as made from dirt refers back to Genesis 2, of course, but also reminds of the story in which a scientist, saying he can create life from dirt, is told by God, “Use your own dirt.” The same book also contains other poems, including “The Making of Viola”, which relates to Psalm 139 and both do well to show people the folly of abortion.Related sources are the Bible, “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” and William Shakespeare’s play, Henry V.
Published: December 01, 2006
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