The Hound of Heaven

I read the famous poem today a few times. I was trying to parse it out and make sense of it. I pretty much got it, except there are a few places.

I haven't got it in front of me, and I don't have any quotes. I figure it's easy enough for anyone to find.

In essence, it's someone with a sense that God is pursuing him for a relationship and surrender to God. In the poem God doesn't take no for an answer. And I guess that must be the way it is in daily life outsides of poems.

There's some tough bits to decipher, if you're not used to poetic speak. But keep at it and you can get it. The edition I have has a bunch of annotations toward the back. Some of them might be accurate and some might not. One thing for sure, the annotator was a definite fan of the poem, and seemed to be someone who wanted to make the religious significance of the whole thing front and center.

I like the idea of love that won't let you go, love that goes beyond degree, etc. The poem expresses something of that. Really not much in the sense of why. But God has God's reasons. The pursuit happens, and in the end the poet finds out that God's shadow was God's hand giving loving caresses.