70. To his Watch. Hopkins, Gerard Manley. 1918. Poems

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89). Poems. 1918.

70. To his Watch


MORTAL my mate, bearing my rock-a-heart
Warm beat with cold beat company, shall I
Earlier or you fail at our force, and lie
The ruins of, rifled, once a world of art?
The telling time our task is; time’s some part,	5
Not all, but we were framed to fail and die—
One spell and well that one. There, ah thereby
Is comfort’s carol of all or woe’s worst smart.

Field-flown, the departed day no morning brings
Saying ‘This was yours’ with her, but new one, worse,	10
And then that last and shortest…

See Notes.