Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89). Poems. 1918.

73. ‘Thee, God, I come from, to thee go’

THEE, God, I come from, to thee go,

All day long I like fountain flow

From thy hand out, swayed about

Mote-like in thy mighty glow.

What I know of thee I bless,

As acknowledging thy stress

On my being and as seeing

Something of thy holiness.

Once I turned from thee and hid,

Bound on what thou hadst forbid;

Sow the wind I would; I sinned:

I repent of what I did.

Bad I am, but yet thy child.

Father, be thou reconciled.

Spare thou me, since I see

With thy might that thou art mild.

I have life before me still

And thy purpose to fulfil;

Yea a debt to pay thee yet:

Help me, sir, and so I will.

But thou bidst, and just thou art,

Me shew mercy from my heart

Towards my brother, every other

Man my mate and counterpart.
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