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by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844 - 1889)

To Call Thee Love
Language: English 
Let me be to Thee as the circling bird,
Or bat with tender and air-crisping wings
That shapes in half-light his departing rings,
From both of whom a changeless note is heard.

I have found my music in a common word,
Trying each pleasurable throat that sings
And every praisèd sequence of sweet strings,
And know infallibly which I preferred.

The authentic cadence was discovered late
Which ends those only strains that I approve,
And other science all gone out of date
And minor sweetness scarce made mention of:
I have found the dominant of my range and state -
Love, O my God, to call Thee Love and Love.

Text Authorship:

  • by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844 - 1889), appears in Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins, first published 1918 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "To Call Thee Love", 1999 [ soprano and piano ], from Four Songs of Gerard Manley Hopkins, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2007-05-07
Line count: 14
Word count: 109

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