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 - Let me be to Thee as the circling birdEmail Poem

Let me be to Thee as the circling bird

 Let me be to Thee as the circling bird, 
Or bat with tender and air-crisping wings
That shapes in half-light his departing rings, 
From both of whom a changeless note is heard.
I have found my music in a common word, 
Trying each pleasurable throat that sings
And every praised sequence of sweet strings, 
And know infallibly which I preferred.

The authentic cadence was discovered late
Which ends those only strains that I approve, 
And other science all gone out of date
And minor sweetness scarce made mention of: 
I have found the dominant of my range and state - 
Love, O my God, to call Thee Love and Love.



Comments