“I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.”

Francis Thompson [1859-1907]

From, The Hound of Heaven [1893] Stanza 1.

To read the poem in full: The Hound of Heaven.

Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations by John Bartlett.
Published by Little, Brown and Company. 1955. Page 790.