The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Hound of Heaven, by Francis Thompson

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Title: The Hound of Heaven

Author: Francis Thompson

Illustrator: Stella Langdale

Release Date: December 21, 2009 [EBook #30730]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOUND OF HEAVEN ***

Produced by Al Haines

[Illustration: Cover art]

[Illustration: Front end papers]

THE HOUND OF HEAVEN

[Illustration]

[Frontispiece:

When she lit her glimmering tapers
Round the day's dead sanctities _Page 52_]

[Illustration: Title page]

THE HOUND OF HEAVEN

_By_ FRANCIS THOMPSON

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY

STELLA LANGDALE

NEW YORK

DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY

1926

COPYRIGHT, 1922,

BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, INC.

PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.

INTRODUCTION

The Rev. Mark J. McNeal, S. J., who was one of the successors of
Lafcadio Hearn in the chair of English Literature at the Tokyo Imperial
University, in an interesting article recounts the following incident
of his experience in that institution. "I was seated on the examining
board with Professor Ichikawa, the dean of the English department...
There entered the room a student whom I recognized as among the best in
the class, a sharp young chap with big Mongolian eyes, and one who had
never to my knowledge given any hint of even a leaning toward
Christianity. I remembered, however, that his thesis submitted for a
degree had been a study of Francis Thompson. Following the usual
custom, I began to question him about his thesis.

"'Why did you choose Thompson?'

"'Well, he is quite a famous poet.'

"'What kind of poet is he?'

"'We might call him a mystic.'

"'Is he a mystic of the orthodox sort, like Cynewulf or Crashaw; or an
unorthodox mystic, like Blake or Shelley?'

"'Oh, he's orthodox.'

"'Well, now, what do you consider his greatest production?'

"'Why, I should say "The Hound of Heaven."

"'Well, what on earth does Thompson mean by that Hound?'

"'He means God.'

"'But is not that a rather irreverent way for Thompson to be talking
about God, calling Him a hound? What