Other editions of book The Hound of Heaven Biographical Sketch and Notes By Michael A. Kelly Introduction By Katherine Bregy

Unlike many of his contemporaries, the English poet Francis Thompson (1859-1907) was a true mystic. While more celebrated poets, like Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Arnold, were content to express their religious leanings in traditional devotional formulae, Thompson strove to portray the divine directly, in all its terrifying majesty. In this way he is more akin to earlier masters, like Henry Vaughan and George Herbert, than to the poets of his own day. In his most famous work, "The Hound of Heaven", he describes God not as a remote governing presence but rather as a hunter relentlessly pursuing the reluctant devotee. Thompson's powerful depiction of the numinous relationship has found many admirers, including Tolkien and the renowned yoga master Paramahansa Yogananda, who made his own recording of the poem. Voices of Today 2015

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

The Hound of Heaven is a work of art in just shy of 200 lines. A short piece for such a life changing poem. It contains more than one beautiful verse and the tone changes seamlessly many times over the poem. Called 'the sweetest, deepest, strongest song ever written in the English tongue' by the Reverend John O'Conor and as Katherine Bregy, highlights in the foreword, a taste for reading such beautiful work as Francis Thompson's can be the greatest possible aid to spiritual development for the individual. Francis Thompson's work describes the flight of the soul from enlightenment, 'down the nights and down the days'. His characterisation of Christ's love is as an insistent ever present force which chases the sinner, proffering salvation but not as option. The thought takes the personification of Christ through a huge variety of iterations, an avenger, a pursuer but still a saviour. The intensity of his religious experience and the potency of his metaphors permeate through the page and into the reader. His characterisation of lived experience as a process of dirtying the soul is powerful and harks back to the proud hermetic Christian traditions of Bede and St Cuthbert. Whilst this is without doubt a work of Christian spirituality there is no shortage of mythological references, an addition which enriches the poetry and illustrative nature of the work. This volume also has a wealth of analysis and explanation of Thompson's original work which allows the full significance of his work to be appreciated by all readers.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

The Rev. Mark J. McNeal, S. J., who was one of the successors of Lafcadio Hearn in the chair of English Literature at the Tokyo Imperial University, in an interesting article recounts the following incident of his experience in that institution. "I was seated on the examining board with Professor Ichikawa, the dean of the English department... There entered the room a student whom I recognized as among the best in the class, a sharp young chap with big Mongolian eyes, and one who had never to my knowledge given any hint of even a leaning toward Christianity. I remembered, however, that his thesis submitted for a degree had been a study of Francis Thompson. Following the usual custom, I began to question him about his thesis.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.