A Poem by Francis Thompson (1859-1907) A Study Guide | ||
. Type of Work “The Hound of Heaven” is a poem centering on the pursuit of a sinner by a loving God. Written in a lofty, dignified style that expresses deep feelings, it is classified as an ode. It first appeared in Poems, a collection of Francis Thompson's works published in 1893. Francis Thompson was a devout Roman Catholic who led a tortured life. After abandoning studies to become a priest and later a physician, he drifted and fell into financial hard times. So poverty-stricken was he in London, where he was pursuing a career as a writer, that he sold matches to earn money and borrowed paper on which to write poems. His troubles increased when he developed neuralgia. To relieve the acute pain of this condition, he began taking laudanum, a concoction of opium and ethanol. He became an addict. In "The Hound of Heaven," the speaker runs from God in order to maintain the pleasures of his dissolute life. One can imagine the speaker's real-life counterpart, Thompson, doing the same as he pursued the groggy pleasures of his opium habit. Meanwhile, he contracted tuberculosis. Though he fought his drug habit, he eventually succumbed to TB, dying a month short of his forty-eighth birthday. The speaker is running from God, as do many people caught up in the world. But God pursues him. Although aware of God's love for him, the speaker continues to run, believing that submitting to God means giving up worldly pleasures. The
speaker runs from place to place and even troubles
“the gold gateway of
the stars” in his effort to escape his pursuer. He
pleads with dawn to
be brief so that darkness may come to hide him. He
asks the evening to
cover him. But God still pursues him, saying,
“Naught shelters thee, who
wilt not shelter Me.”
"Lo! naught contents thee, who content’st not Me!" His days pass swiftly when he swings “the earth a trinket at my wrist,” but eventually his youth stands “amid the dust o' the mounded years.” The happiness he sought in the things of the world has eluded him. A trumpet sounds from the battlements of eternity through the confounding mist of time. Then follows a loud voice: “Lo, all things fly thee, for thou fliest Me!” It asks the speaker whether he has earned the love of another human, then answers, Alack, thou knowest notGod explains that what He took from the speaker—the pleasures that led him in the wrong direction—was not intended to hurt him but to help him find his way to the right path. The happiness that you think you lost, God says, is not lost but “stored for thee at home.” “Rise, clasp My hand, and come!” The speaker wonders whether the gloom he feels is nothing more than the shade cast by the hand of God reaching out to him. God tells him that the happiness he sought by running away was following him all the time. I fled
Him, down the nights
and down the days;
..........I
pleaded, outlaw-wise,5
I sought
no more that after
which I strayed
Naked, I
wait thy Love's
uplifted stroke!
.......
Halts by me that footfall:
Notes 1......and
in the mist . . . laughter: The speaker hides
whether he is sad or
whether he is laughing.
As in the odes of other writers of the nineteenth century, Thompson wrote "The Hound of Heaven" in elevated, dignified diction. To enhance its dignity, he used many archaic words—such as alack, methinks, adown, thee, and thy—giving the poem a biblical ring. To maintain rhythm and euphony, he sometimes added a syllable to a word by inserting a grave accent over an e—as in chasmèd, unperturbèd, and followèd. The speaker tells of his experiences in first-person point of view, now and then quoting the words of his pursuer. End rhyme occurs, but there is no definite scheme. The highlighted syllables demonstrate the end rhyme in the first stanza. I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;Internal Rhyme Internal rhyme also occurs, as in the following lines. I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways (line 3)Verse Format Most of the feet in poem consist of iambs in lines of varying lengths. Following are examples. .......1...............2..............3..................4...................5
Theme The theme of the poem is that only God can provide true and lasting happiness; the pleasures and comforts of this world—which are temporary and incomplete—cannot satisfy the deep longing for God. The speaker, of course, attempts to escape the pursuit of a loving God in order to to enjoy the pleasures of life—sinful and otherwise—but worries that he will have to sacrifice his earthly delights if he accepts God. But none of the world's pleasures truly satisfies him. He realizes at the end of the poem that only God can make him truly happy.. Following are examples of figures of speech in the poem. For definitions of figures of speech, see Literary Terms. Alliteration Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears (line 4)Anaphora I fled Him down the nights and down the daysApostrophe I said to Dawn: Be sudden—to Eve: Be soon (line 30) Metaphor
.......The entire poem is a metaphor for a chase. The speaker uses words such as fled, sped, speed, shot, followed, chase, pace, swift, and pursuit to develop the metaphor. chasmèd fears (line 8)Oxymoron unhurrying chase (line 10)Paradox they speak by silences (line 97)Personification Nature, poor stepdame, cannot slake my drouth;Study Questions and Writing Topics
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