The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-02-15
THE HOUND OF HEAVEN
A Study of Francis Thompson's Re-
markahIe Poem-A Poet Whose
Work is Not Fully Appreciated.

Francis Thompson's remarkable and
singularly beautiful poem, "The Hound
of Heaven" which, according to one of
it's earlier critics, people will still be
learning by heart two hundred years
hence" and in the opinion of another
is "the most wonderful lyric in the
language" has not been familiar but
to the few since it was written, not so
very many years ago.
In "a Study of Francis Thompson's
Hound of Heaven" by the Rev. ]. F. X.
O'Conor, S. j., professor of philosophy
in St. Francis Xavier's College, New
York, it has been reserved for poe
try-loving Jesuit, himself poet, to
reveal all it's innermost, hidden beau
| ties, to make clear the meaning of
this celestial vision, to interpret its
subtitle and intricate yet soul-satisfying
rhymes, and to bring it's mystical i'm
agery within the ken of the simplest,
as well as to place it within the reach
of the poorest purse, says the Catholic
News.
Within the thirty-six pages of his
brochure, of which six are devoted to
the poem itself, Father O'Conor loving
| ly and religiously analyses this in
spired lyric which, he says, lis the
sweetest, deepest, strongest song in
the English language"
The Study" first gives brief biog-
raphy of the little-known Catholic poet,
which would be more satisfying had it
not been so brief, for after reading the
Hound of Heaven" one instinctively
hungers for more about man whose
genius could conceive such enthralling
thoughts and clothe them in such
majestic and smooth diction.
The poet was born at Preston, Lam
cashire, England, Dec. 10, 1859, of Ca
tholic parents, his father country
doctor, and he was educated at Ushaw,
where in former years Lingard and
Wiseman were pupils, and, where his
bent was towards literature. After
seven years there he was unwillingly
sent to Owens College to qualify for
his fathers profession which he de-
tested and the result was that he dis
appeared. Wilfrid Meynell, editor of a
Catholic magazine known as MERRY
England" to whom he had ventured
to send a poem, "Dream-Tryst, writ
| ten in memory of child, found him
in 1888, penniless and starving and a
wanderer in the streets of London. A
doctors care and some months spent
: in a Premonstratensian monastery re
stored him to health and gave him a
new hold upon life and he began to
; write poetry in earnest, Daisy" and
. his magnificent lode to the Setting
Sum-" being his first productions
These were followed by three volumes
of poetry included in which were
: Love in dams Lap" "The Making
of VIOLA" and Hound of Heaven
He was encouraged by such men as
Coventry Patmore, William Archer
Trail and George Meredith, and his
next work was an Essay on Shelley,
which was Immediately famous and
London was ringing with it. Their
came Health and Happiness" and his
Life of st. Ignatius Loyola," which
was 0uIC0u Dy the RcF- y. n. OhOh' y
: J. He died at the age of forty-eight
, on Nov. Is, 1907, ministered to in his
) last hours by the gentle Sisters of st
John and st. Elizabeth, and was unan
: imously hailed on the morrow o.
4 his death as a great poet.
! While all his poems revealed the
: quality of his genius and stamped hin
i as poet of the first order, his Hound
a of Heaven" is perhaps the most spirit
/. ual and mystical and, if we are to be
q lieve Coventry Patmore, 1T is one o
e the few great odes of which the Ian
d guage can boast"
This is the poem which Fathe
e O'Conor has chosen for his Study
: and after giving it in full he follow
with his Interpretation of its myster
0 les. He first speaks of the title
t strange, startling and bold, unattrac
s tive at first till after one has read AM
y re-read the poem. Then the meanini
/; is understood and the title is seen t
e be the most happy and speaking tina
could have been selected. The houn