#MIDDLEBURY
The Candle Indoors
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Some candle clear burns somewhere I come by.
I muse at how its being puts blissful back
With yellowy moisture mild night’s blear-all black,
Or to-fro tender trambeams truckle at the eye.
By that window what task what fingers ply,
I plod wondering, a-wanting, just for lack
Of answer the eagerer a-wanting Jessy or Jack
There God to aggrandise, God to glorify. –
Come you indoors, come home; your fading fire
Mend first and vital candle in close heart’s vault:
You there are master, do your own desire;
What hinders? Are you beam-blind, yet to a fault
In a neighbour deft-handed? Are you that liar
And, cast by conscience out, spendsavour salt?
About this poem
“The Candle Indoors” was published in “Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins” (Humphrey Milford, 1918).
About Gerard Manley Hopkins
Gerard Manley Hopkins was born at Stratford, Essex, England, on July 28, 1844. Although his poems were never published during his lifetime, his friend, the poet Robert Bridges, edited a volume of Hopkins’ “Poems” that first appeared in 1918. He died on June 8, 1889.
The Academy of American Poets is a nonprofit, mission-driven organization, whose aim is to make poetry available to a wider audience. Email The Academy at poem-a-day@poets.org.
This poem is in the public domain. Originally published in Poem-a-Day, www.poets.org. Distributed by King Features Syndicate.
