The Handsome Heart: At A Gracious Answer

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Title:     The Handsome Heart: At A Gracious Answer
Author: Gerard Manley Hopkins [More Titles by Hopkins]

'BUT tell me, child, your choice; what shall I buy
You?'--'Father, what you buy me I like best.'
With the sweetest air that said, still plied and pressed,
He swung to his first poised purport of reply.

What the heart is! which, like carriers let fly--
Doff darkness, homing nature knows the rest--
To its own fine function, wild and self-instressed,
Falls light as ten years long taught how to and why.

Mannerly-hearted! more than handsome face--
Beauty's bearing or muse of mounting vein,
All, in this case, bathed in high hallowing grace . . .

Of heaven what boon to buy you, boy, or gain
Not granted?--Only ... O on that path you pace
Run all your race, O brace sterner that strain!

[The end]
Gerard Manley Hopkins's poem: Handsome Heart: At A Gracious Answer

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