Quote#Time
In the rash lustihead of my young powers
Quote byFrancis Thompson · 1859–1907
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Hound of Heaven (1893), St. 4..
English (original)
In the rash lustihead of my young powers, I shook the pillaring hours And pulled my life upon me; grimed with smears, I stand amid the dust o’ the mounded years— My mangled youth lies dead beneath the heap. My days have crackled and gone up in smoke, Have puffed and burst as sun-starts on a stream.
— Francis Thompson
More from Francis Thompson
Look for me in the nurseries of Heaven.
The hills look over on the South, And Southward dreams the sea; And with the sea-breeze hand in hand, Came innocence and she.
Nothing begins, and nothing ends, That is not paid with moan, For we are born in other's pain, And perish in our own.
The fairest things have fleetest end, Their scent survives their close: But the rose's scent is bitterness To him that loved the rose.
O GAIN that lurk’st ungainèd in all gain! O love we just fall short of in all love! O height that in all heights art still above! O beauty that dost leave all beauty pain! Thou unpossessed that mak’st possession vain,
Thou canst not stir a flower / Without troubling of a star.