Francis Thompson Quotes

Wake! for the Ruddy Ball has taken flight That scatters the slow Wicket of the Night; And the swift Batsman of the Dawn has driven Against the Star-spiked Rails a fiery smite.

There is no expeditious road To pack and label men for God, And save them by the barrel-load, Some may perchance, with strange surprise, Have blundered into Paradise.

O world invisible, we view thee, O world intangible, we touch thee, O world unknowable, we know thee, Inapprehensible,we clutch thee!

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days; I fled Him, down the arches of the years; I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways Of my own mind; and in the midst of tears I hid from Him, and under running laughter.

The fairest things have fleetest end, Their scent survives their close: But the rose’s scent is bitterness To him that loved the rose.