I would have included this in the “just added” post, but it is simply just too magnificent to group with anything else.
Describing Francis Thompson’s masterpiece is a tall order indeed, but this comes as close as anything I’ve seen:
“The name is strange. It startles one at first. It is so bold, so new, so fearless. It does not attract, rather the reverse. But when one reads the poem this strangeness disappears. The meaning is understood. As the hound follows the hare, never ceasing in its running, ever drawing nearer in the chase, with unhurrying and imperturbed pace, so does God follow the fleeing soul by His Divine grace. And though in sin or in human love, away from God it seeks to hide itself, Divine grace follows after, unwearyingly follows ever after, till the soul feels its pressure forcing it to turn to Him alone in that never ending pursuit.”
—The Neuman Press Book of Verse, 1988
I was first introduced to this poem by Dr. Walter Elwell about five years ago.
I’ll be processing it for the next fifty.
May He take me if I ever wish to outpace Him…
