Hopkins Poem About Christ

As Kingfishers Catch Fire

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.

Gerard Manley Hopkins

---

Even without completely understanding it, I have always found something interesting about Christ and Beauty and other immutables in this poem to be immediately apparent and very vivid. It's like a song whose words you may not yet comprehend, but the music's not hard to hear. Hopkins is one of my favorite poets because he made such music often and I seldom can.

---