Apology

THEE, God, I come from, to thee go,
All day long I like fountain flow
From thy hand out, swayed about
Mote-like in thy mighty glow.

What I know of thee I bless, 

As acknowledging thy stress 

On my being and as seeing 

Something of thy holiness.

Once I turned from thee and hid,
Bound on what thou hadst forbid;
Sow the wind I would; I sinned:
I repent of what I did.

Bad I am, but yet thy child.
Father, be thou reconciled.
Spare thou me, since I see
With thy might that thou art mild.


I have life before me still 

And thy purpose to fulfil;
Yea a debt to pay thee yet:
Help me, sir, and so I will.


But thou bidst, and just thou art,
Me shew mercy from my heart
Towards my brother, every other
Man my mate and counterpart.

-Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89).