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.
(Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1918)
2 comments:
Too weird Kathleen... I posted this exact poem on my blog a few weeks ago. It's one of my favorites, largely due to the sound devices.
Hope spring in London is treating you well. Spring in Fbks is early.
Yes! I saw it on your blog! It's really beautiful. Is he a well-known poet? I've never heard of him except for "Pied Beauty", & that was only because it was the frontispiece from a physical anthropology book. I looked him up though and it appears he was an admirer of Christina Rosetti (me too; "Goblin Market" with its lesbo-erotic overtones may possibly be my favourite poem ever written). Sorta reminds me of this one...
Spring in Fairbanks already, huh? Do they still bet on when the Tenana ice breaks, or is all the permafrost melting up there?
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