I Wake And Feel The Fell Of Dark, Not Day

Portrait of Gerard Manley Hopkins
Gerard Manley Hopkins 1844–1889

I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day. What hours, O what black hours we have spent This night! what sights you, heart, saw; ways you went! And more must, in yet longer light's delay.

With witness I speak this. But where I say Hours I mean years, mean life. And my lament Is cries countless, cries like dead letters sent To dearest him that lives alas! away.

I am gall, I am heartburn. God's most deep decrees Bitter would have me taste: my taste was me; Bones built in me, flesh filled, blood brimmed the curse.

Selfyeast of spirit a dull dough sours. I see The lost are like this, and their scourge to be As I am mine, their sweating selves, but worse.

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Beryl Coyne42 words
  1. Beryl Coyne United Kingdom

    Written in 1880, yet so applicable today. When there is so much suffering in our world, I couldn't help but feel a connection with this beautiful poem. Its the first time Ive read any poetry on the internet - I'll be back!!

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