The Hound of Heaven by Francis Thompson

The Hound of Heaven, Francis Thompson. Burns & Oates, Ltd., London. No date, but possibly 1907 and likely not the first printing of this editiion. Thompson’s poem covers 9 pages with additional pages, including a frontispiece, introduction, handwriting sample, and ads. Good condition. Small paperback with flaps. The cover has a stain from a drop of liquid, with two smaller stains on the back and some tanning. Mostly bright and clean pages, a few with small stains and one with a torn off corner. Deckled page edges are tanned. Two sets of four pages were not cut.

Paramahansa Yogananda often quoted from this poem and includes a section of it in a footnote in the final chapter of Autobiography of a Yogi: “That voice is round me like a bursting sea: / ‘And is thy earth so marred, / Shattered in shard on shard? / Lo, all things fly thee, for thou fliest Me! / All which I took from thee I did but take, / Not for thy harms, / But just that thou mightest seek it in My arms. / All which thy child’s mistake / Fancied as lost, I have stored for thee at home. / Rise, clasp my hand, and come!'” And the first lines of the poem are included in a footnote of Paramahansaji’s The Second Coming of Christ. He also recited part of Thompson’s poem in a recording that is included on Songs of My Heart: Chants, Poems, and Prayers. This little booklet is the same version displayed in the SRF Lake Shrine Museum.