...he becomes a mirror of Christ, flashing goldvermilion: I kissed the rod, Hand rather, my heart lot lapped strength, Stole joy, would laugh, cheer. Cheer...heaven-handling flung me, foot trod Me? or me that fought him? The crucial ambivalence which Hopkins stresses is owing to the double mirror image which he keeps always...

...might fly," his "grain lie, sheer and clear," is reinforced by the pleasurable release that follows: "Nay in all that toil, that coil, since (seems) I...lo! lapped strength, stole joy, would laugh, cheer." Notable here is the displacement of homage from the rod to the hand that wields it, as if Hopkins dramatizes...

...eyes my bruised bones? and fan, O in turns of tempest, me heaped there; me frantic to avoid thee and Nay in all that toil, that coil, since (seems) I kissed...fought him? O which one? is it each one? That night, 138 that year Of now done darkness I wretch lay wrestling with (my God!) my God. Composed after the...

...person and so throws light (itself described negatively as "now done darkness") back upon the question "Cheer whom though? The hero whose heaven-handling flung me, foot trod / Me? or me that fought him?" Here Hopkins uses interpolated utterance (as he had in the famous "fancy, come faster" of "The Wreck...

...there; me frantic to avoid thee and flee ? Why? That my chaff might fly; my grain lie, sheer and clear. Nay in all that toil, that coil, since (seems) I kissed the rod, 10 Hand rather, my heart lo ! lapped strength, stole joy, would laugh, cheer. Cheer whom though ? the...