Editing Francis Thompson (section)

==Style and influence==
[[File:Francis Thompson memorial plaque.JPG|thumb|Memorial plaque to Thompson, Winckley Street, Preston]]
His most famous poem, ''[[The Hound of Heaven]]'', describes the pursuit of the human person by God. The playwright [[Eugene O’Neill]] could recite it from memory.<ref>[https://www.patheos.com/blogs/mcnamarasblog/2013/11/catholic-poetry-the-hound-of-heaven-by-francis-thompson-1859-1907.html McNamara, Pat. "Catholic Poetry", McNamara's Blog, Patheos, November 16, 2013]</ref>

In 2002, Katherine A. Powers, literary columnist for the ''[[Boston Globe]],'' called ''Hound of Heaven'' "perhaps the most beloved and ubiquitously taught poem among American Catholics for over half a century," adding that Thompson's other poetry lost its popularity amidst anti-[[Modernism in the Catholic Church|Modernism]] in the Catholic church during most of the twentieth century. However, she agrees that the dawning century is more akin to his spirit: "His medical training and life on the streets gave him a gritty view of reality and a social conscience, and his governing idea that God is immanent in all things and in all experience, so vexatious to both Victorians and the Vatican alike, no longer strikes an alien or heretical note."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://bcm.bc.edu/issues/summer_2002/ll_poet.html|title=Poet du jour – BCM – Summer 2002|website=bcm.bc.edu|access-date=2017-06-17|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304023338/http://bcm.bc.edu/issues/summer_2002/ll_poet.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[G. K. Chesterton]] said shortly after his death that "with Francis Thompson we lost the greatest poetic energy since [[Robert Browning|Browning]]."<ref>Chesterton, G.K. (1909). [https://archive.org/stream/considered00chesuoft#page/274/mode/2up "A Dead Poet."] In: ''All Things Considered.'' New York: John Lane Company, p. 275.</ref> Among Thompson's devotees was the young [[J. R. R. Tolkien]], who purchased a volume of Thompson's works in 1913–1914, and later said that it was an important influence on his own writing.<ref>Tolkien, J.R.R. (1984). ''The Book of Lost Tales''. Edited by Christopher Tolkien. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, p. 29n.</ref>

Phrases from his poetry have been lifted by others and made famous. The U.S. [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] in [[Brown v. Board of Education#Brown II|Brown II]] used "with all deliberate speed" for the remedy sought in their famous decision on school [[desegregation]].<ref>{{Cite SSRN|title=Poetic Justice|first=James Ming|last=Chen|date=3 May 2012|ssrn=778884}}</ref> A phrase in "The Kingdom of God"<ref>[http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/thomps01.html#1 ''The Kingdom of God''] at [http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/index.html Poets' Corner]</ref> is the source of the title of [[Han Suyin]]'s novel ''[[A Many-Splendoured Thing]]''. In addition, Thompson wrote the most famous [[Cricket poetry|cricket poem]], the nostalgic "[[Cricket poetry#At Lord's|At Lord's]]". He also wrote '' The Poppy '' (1893), ''Sister Songs'' (1895), ''New Poems'' (1897), and a posthumously published essay, ''Shelley'' (1909).

[[Halliday Sutherland]] borrowed the second line of ''The Hound of Heaven'' for the title of his 1933 autobiographical best-seller ''The Arches of the Years''.<ref>''Making the List: A Cultural History of the American Bestseller'' by Michael Korda. Barnes and Noble Books, 2001. p. 67.</ref> The American novelist [[Madeleine L'Engle]] used a line from the poem "The Mistress of Vision" as the title of her last Vicki Austin novel, ''[[Troubling a Star]]''. The self-realized poet-yogi, [[Paramahansa Yogananda]], was fond of quoting Thompson's ''The Hound of Heaven'' poem.<ref>Yogananda, Paramahansa (1982).  "Creating and Destroying Habits at Will," in ''[https://bookstore.yogananda-srf.org/product/mans-eternal-quest/ Man’s Eternal Quest]'', Self-Realization Fellowship, Los Angeles, CA. {{ISBN|978-0-87612-233-4}}.</ref>

[[Bishop Fulton J. Sheen]] quoted lines from Ex Ore Infantium<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.sacred-texts.com/time/50x/50x25.htm | title=Fifty Christmas Poems for Children: Ex Ore Infantium }}</ref> in his "The True Meaning of Christmas" episode in 1956.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c9f1KEPOM8&t=1100s | title=The True Meaning of Christmas by Archbishop Fulton Sheen | via=YouTube | date=25 November 2019 }}</ref>

In 2012, [[Chris Ward (playwright)|Chris Ward]]'s biographical filmscript, ''Hound: Visions in the Life of the Victorian poet Francis Thompson'' was staged at the [[Riverside Studios]], Hammersmith and following that the stage version was taken on a tour of London's churches including [[St Giles-in-the Fields]] and in St Olav's (City of London) in May 2014.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.indcatholicnews.com/news/24685|title=StackPath|website=indcatholicnews.com|date=7 May 2014 }}</ref> A film of ''Hound'' based on the life of Francis Thompson has been made into feature film with a cast including [[Wayne Sleep]], [[Toyah Willcox]] and [[Hazel O'Connor]], and with Francis Thompson played by Daniel Hutchinson.<ref>{{cite video|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvthQF7ZiZM&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR1l9nsX-e6TwEXUoeF1ADa1jTGmWmhBXE23dd9wiriS2IRsdEprXuncI_w |url-status=|title=Hound|via=YouTube}}{{dead link|date=September 2023}}</ref>

[[File:Francis Thompson memorial plaque, detail.JPG|thumb|Inscription on memorial plaque]]