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Hope holds to Christ

By Gerard Manley Hopkins

Topics: classic

Hope holds to Christ the mind's own mirror out     To take His lovely likeness more and more.     It will not well, so she would bring about     An ever brighter burnish than before     And turns to wash it from her welling eyes     And breathes the blots off all with sighs on sighs.     Her glass is blest but she as good as blind     Holds till hand aches and wonders what is there;     Her glass drinks light, she darkles down behind,     All of her glorious gainings unaware.          I told you that she turned her mirror dim     Betweenwhiles, but she sees herself not Him.

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"Hope holds to Christ the mind's own mirror out..."

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Author:Gerard Manley Hopkins

"Hope holds to Christ the mind's own mirror out..." by Gerard Manley Hopkins

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Gerard Manley Hopkins

About Gerard Manley Hopkins

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889) was an English Jesuit poet who invented "sprung rhythm," a new metrical system. His poems—including "The Windhover," "Pied Beauty," and "God's Grandeur"—were published posthumously and are now celebrated for their ecstatic language and innovative prosody.

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"Wild air, world-mothering air,     Nestling me eve..."

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