In The Meantime. Practice with The Poem.

With expository.

The next few posts will be on an expository of the stanza’s in the poem, The Hound of Heaven as we all roll donwhill. Don’t be afraid. Try it yourself. There are endless, countless explanations. Here we go rolling, rolling, rolling.

The Hound Of Heaven

By Francis Thompson (1890)

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 mist of tears

I hid from Him, and under running laughter.

Up vistaed hopes I sped;

And shot, precipitated,

Adown Titanic glooms of chasmèd fears,

From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.

But with unhurrying chase,

And unperturbèd pace,

Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,

They beat—and a Voice beat

More instant than the Feet—

‘All things betray thee, who betrayest Me.’

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Stanza One.

1. SO, I see Stanza One asking each one of us a question. A deeply personal question. WHO and WHAT do you run from in some manner or another every day and night?

2. This running relates to your fear and any desperation you may experience.

   1. Behaviors that you do out of despair or selfish wants.

   2. When you are discouraged by your life.

   3. When everything seems uphill and difficult.

3. Where in your MIND do you hide?

   1. The MIND, your mind is the fore runner of things.

   2. It is in your mind you will find the roots of fear and desperation.

   3. Change the mind. You have the power to change the mind.

   4. What keeps you miserable?

4. Thompson was running from his True Nature, from the Divine, Eternal Unborn.

5. Are YOU?

   1. Do you know you are not the body. You are not the mind?

   2. Oh yes, yes…you have a body. And a mind. But both are impermanent.

   3. What keeps you tied to the sinking boat thinking and believing it will last forever?

   4. It is not a matter of giving up in despair…it is a matter of facing the truth.

6. Do you see the fallacy of hope?

7. The last line of this stanza is strong medicine.

   1. All things betray you when you betray the unborn, undying, immutable divinity known by many names.

   2. Do you feel betrayed?

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