Thou Art Indeed Just

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Justus quidem tu es, Domine, si disputem tecum; verumtamen justa loquar ad
te: quare via impiorum prosperatur? &c. (Jerem. xii 1.)

 Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend
   With thee; but, sir, so what I plead is just.
   Why do sinners' ways prosper? and why must
 Disappointment all I endeavour end?
 Wert thou my enemy, O thou my friend,
   How wouldst thou worse, I wonder, than thou dost
   Defeat, thwart me? Oh, the sots and thralls of lust
 Do in spare hours more thrive than I that spend,

 Sir, life upon thy cause. See, banks and brakes	
Now leavd how thick! lacd they are again	        
With fretty chervil, look, and fresh wind shakes	
Them; birds buildbut not I build; no, but strain,	
Times eunuch, and not breed one work that wakes.	
Mine, O thou lord of life, send my roots rain.

Next 10 Poems

• Gerard Manley Hopkins : Thou Art Indeed Just, Lord, If I Contend
• Gerard Manley Hopkins : To A Young Child
• Gerard Manley Hopkins : To Him Who Ever Thought With Love Of Me
• Gerard Manley Hopkins : To His Watch
• Gerard Manley Hopkins : To R. B.
• Gerard Manley Hopkins : To Seem The Stranger Lies My Lot, My Life
• Gerard Manley Hopkins : To What Serves Mortal Beauty?
• Gerard Manley Hopkins : Tom's Garland
• Gerard Manley Hopkins : What Being In Rank-old Nature
• Gerard Manley Hopkins : What Being In Rank-old Nature Should Earlier Have That Breath Been

Previous 10 Poems

• Gerard Manley Hopkins : Thee, God, I Come From, To Thee Go
• Gerard Manley Hopkins : Thee, God, I Come From
• Gerard Manley Hopkins : The Wreck Of The Deutschland
• Gerard Manley Hopkins : The Woodlark
• Gerard Manley Hopkins : The Windhover: To Christ Our Lord
• Gerard Manley Hopkins : The Windhover
• Gerard Manley Hopkins : The Times Are Nightfall, Look, Their Light Grows Less
• Gerard Manley Hopkins : The Times Are Nightfall
• Gerard Manley Hopkins : The Starlight Night
• Gerard Manley Hopkins : The Soldier