Skip to content
Linespedia

That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the comfort of the Resurrection

By Gerard Manley Hopkins

Topics: classic

CLoud-Puffball, torn tufts, tossed pillows | flaunt forth, then chevy on an air-     built thoroughfare: heaven-roysterers, in gay-gangs | they throng; they glitter in marches.     Down roughcast, down dazzling whitewash, | wherever an elm arches,     Shivelights and shadowtackle in long | lashes lace, lance, and pair.     Delightfully the bright wind boisterous | ropes, wrestles, beats earth bare     Of yestertempest's creases; in pool and rut peel parches     Squandering ooze to squeezed | dough, crust, dust; stanches, starches     Squadroned masks and manmarks | treadmire toil there     Footfretted in it. Million-fueld, | nature's bonfire burns on.     But quench her bonniest, dearest | to her, her clearest-selvd spark     Man, how fast his firedint, | his mark on mind, is gone!     Both are in an unfathomable, all is in an enormous dark     Drowned. O pity and indig | nation! Manshape, that shone     Sheer off, disseveral, a star, | death blots black out; nor mark     Is any of him at all so stark     But vastness blurs and time | beats level. Enough! the Resur- rection,     A heart's-clarion! Away grief's gasping, | joyless days, dejection.     Across my foundering deck shone     A beacon, an eternal beam. | Flesh fade, and mortal trash     Fall to the residuary worm; | world's wildfire, leave but ash:     In a flash, at a trumpet crash,     I am all at once what Christ is, | since he was what I am, and     This Jack, joke, poor potsherd, | patch, matchwood, immortal diamond,     Is immortal diamond.

AI analysis available. Enable JavaScript to interact.

About this line

"CLoud-Puffball, torn tufts, tossed pillows | flaunt forth, then chevy on an air-..."

Exploring the themes of classic, Gerard Manley Hopkins delivers a powerful performance in "That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the comfort of the Resurrection"... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

Attribution & Rights

Author:Gerard Manley Hopkins

"CLoud-Puffball, torn tufts, tossed pillows | flaun..." by Gerard Manley Hopkins

For usage rights, copyright concerns, or to report an issue with this content, please visit our Copyright & Report page.

Related lines

"Wild air, world-mothering air,     Nestling me everywhere,     That each eyelash or hair     Girdles; goes home betwixt     The fleeciest, fra"

"I Wake and feel the fell of dark, not day.     What hours, O what black hors we have spent     This night! what sights you, heart, saw; ways yo"

"On ear and ear two noises too old to end     Trench - right, the tide that ramps against the shore;     With a flood or a fall, low lull-off or"

"Glory be to God for dappled things -     For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;     For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim:"

"Here morning in the ploughman's songs is met     Ere yet one footstep shows in all the sky,     And twilight in the east, a doubt as yet,     S"

"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

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.

Full Bibliography
Continue Reading

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

Weekly Poetic Insight

Join our literary Sanctuary

Get the most inspiring lines, poetic analysis, and secret shayaris delivered to your inbox every Sunday.