As Kingfishers Catch Fire, Dragonflies Draw Flame

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Title:     As Kingfishers Catch Fire, Dragonflies Draw Flame
Author: Gerard Manley Hopkins [More Titles by Hopkins]

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves--goes itself; _myself_ it speaks and spells,
Crying _What I do is me: for that I came._

I say more: the just man justices;
Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is--
Christ--for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men's faces.

[The end]
Gerard Manley Hopkins's poem: As Kingfishers Catch Fire, Dragonflies Draw Flame

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