Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89). Poems. 1918.

24. Morning Midday and Evening Sacrifice

THE DAPPLED die-away

Cheek and wimpled lip,

The gold-wisp, the airy-grey

Eye, all in fellowship—

This, all this beauty blooming,

This, all this freshness fuming,

Give God while worth consuming.

Both thought and thew now bolder

And told by Nature: Tower;

Head, heart, hand, heel, and shoulder

That beat and breathe in power—

This pride of prime’s enjoyment

Take as for tool, not toy meant

And hold at Christ’s employment.

The vault and scope and schooling

And mastery in the mind,

In silk-ash kept from cooling,

And ripest under rind—

What life half lifts the latch of,

What hell stalks towards the snatch of,

Your offering, with despatch, of!