Submit a Poem
Get Your Premium Membership
spacer
Pinterest button


Photo of Gerard Manley Hopkins

Hopkins, Gerard Manley

Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J. was an English poet, Roman Catholic convert, and Jesuit priest, whose posthumous 20th-century fame established him among the leading Victorian poets.. English poet Roman Catholic convert and Jesuit priest

Email Poem - Patience, Hard Thing! The Hard Thing But To PrayEmail Poem

Patience, Hard Thing! The Hard Thing But To Pray

 Patience, hard thing! the hard thing but to pray,
But bid for, Patience is! Patience who asks
Wants war, wants wounds; weary his times, his tasks;
To do without, take tosses, and obey.
 Rare patience roots in these, and, these away,
Nowhere. Natural heart's ivy, Patience masks
Our ruins of wrecked past purpose. There she basks
Purple eyes and seas of liquid leaves all day. 

 We hear our hearts grate on themselves: it kills
To bruise them dearer. Yet the rebellious wills
Of us we do bid God bend to him even so.
 And where is he who more and more distils
Delicious kindness?—He is patient. Patience fills
His crisp combs, and that comes those ways we know.



Comments