I Wake And Feel The Fell Of Dark, Not Day

I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day.
What hours, O what black hours we have spent
This night! what sights you, heart, saw; ways you went!
And more must, in yet longer light's delay.
With witness I speak this. But where I say
Hours I mean years, mean life. And my lament
Is cries countless, cries like dead letters sent
To dearest him that lives alas! away.
I am gall, I am heartburn. God's most deep decrees
Bitter would have me taste: my taste was me;
Bones built in me, flesh filled, blood brimmed the curse.
Selfyeast of spirit a dull dough sours. I see
The lost are like this, and their scourge to be
As I am mine, their sweating selves, but worse.

About Gerard Manley Hopkins

Jesuit priest and poet, pioneer of sprung rhythm, whose innovative verse was published posthumously.

More poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins

View all Gerard Manley Hopkins poems →

More Solitude & Reflection poems

View all Solitude & Reflection poems →