As Kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves — goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying Whát I dó is me: for that I came.

I say móre: the just man justices;
Keeps grace: thát keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is —
Chríst — for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces.

—Gerard Manley Hopkins

“As Kingfishers catch fire” by Gerard Manley Hopkins is supposed to contrast the way each living thing is beautiful in its own way to the way one can become just or godly by acting just and godly, or at least striving to do so. I appreciate the sentiment of putting your mouth where your money is, particularly in the religious context. I’m not religious, but the overall idea is poetic and the imagery of the poem is very pretty.