"Is my gloom, after all, / Shade of his hand, outstretched caressingly?"

Francis Thompson was an English Catholic poet who died at the age of 47, stricken with poor health that followed him from hard experiences he had had as a young man living on the streets of London. "The Hound of Heaven" was written when Thompson was living at Our Lady of England Priory and recovering from opium addiction.

In the poem, one hears echos of Psalm 139 (which Thompson no doubt would have prayed often at the priory): "Where can I go from your spirit, or where can I flee from your face? … even darkness is not dark for you and the night is as clear as the day."

Links

"The Hound of Heaven" full text at CatholicCulture.org: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=10546

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Theme music: "2 Part Invention", composed by Mark Christopher Brandt, performed by Thomas Mirus. ©️2019 Heart of the Lion Publishing Co./BMI. All rights reserved.