"Spring"- Gerard Manley Hopkins

 

 

Nothing is so beautiful as Spring –         

   When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;         

   Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens, and thrush         

Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring         

The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;

   The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush         

   The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush         

With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.

        

What is all this juice and all this joy?         

   A strain of the earth’s sweet being in the beginning

In Eden garden. – Have, get, before it cloy,         

   Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning,         

Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy,         

   Most, O maid’s child, thy choice and worthy the winning.

(First published in Poems. London: Humphrey Milford, 1918)

        

 

 

Wishing all Athenaeum/Sic Semper readers, commenters, & posters a lovely Easter weekend spent with family & friends.

-Maureen Lang

 

 

Comments

[Shirley Bolton]

Thank you for sending us this Spring post, Maureen. I have always loved Hopkins' poems, particularly God's Grandeur. A Happy and Blessed Easter to you.

Shirley

[Robert Bolton]

One of Shirley's favorites is this one, Maureen. Happy Easter to you. Did you do a ham this year? It sure was a tasty one last time you were here with us. That blue berry and pear pie too. Bob

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs--
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

[Maureen Lang]

Shirley & Bob,

So glad you both enjoyed reading this post. Hopkins has been a favorite poet of mine since high school, so thought I'd include his beautiful "Spring" poem for the Easter holiday. Did you folks go to St. Thom's for the holiday services? Such a great community with an equally great children's choir director, Shirley ;-)

Bob, thanks for reminding me what an amazing work "God's Grandeur" is, one of GMH's most enduring favorites. We did not have ham this year, but a roast chicken instead. I actually did make some blueberry/pear cobbler for dessert- the fruit in our local farmers' market looked too good to pass up!

Happy Easter & a Happy Springtime to you both.