Francis Thompson

“Summer set lip to earth's bosom bare, and left the flushed print in a poppy there.”

“For we are born in other's pain, and perish in our own.”

“And human love needs human meriting:How has thou merited-Of all man's clotted clay the dingiest clot?Alack, thou knowest notHow little worthy of any love thou art!Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble theeSave Me, save only Me?”

“I fled Him down the nights and down the daysI fled Him down the arches of the yearsI fled Him down the labyrinthine waysOf my own mind, and in the midst of tearsI hid from him, and under running laughter.”

“Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee Save Me, save only Me?All which I took from thee I did but take, Not for thy harms.But just that thou might'st seek it in my arms. All which thy child's mistakeFancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home; Rise, clasp My hand, and come!”

“The fairest things have fleetest end,Their scent survives their close:But the rose's scent is bitternessTo her who loved the rose.”

“An atheist is a man who believes himself an accident.”