Poem of the Day: “Spring and Fall” by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Once again poetryfoundation.org, has a wealth of poems and commentary on poetry. I highly recommend the site.










Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)






“Spring and Fall”
to a young child

Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you will weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sorrow’s springs are the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.



Although Hopkins could be accused of being mean to a little kid here, “Spring and Fall” is one of his most accessible and most anthologized poems. It might miss my target of presenting feel-good poems, but maybe it's still a chunk of beauty to “set against evil.” (Professor Ralph Williams’s choice of verb—see Banjo52, Sept. 8, 2009 ). And surely "Spring and Fall" is in the running for the October poem. Shall we set it against Keats's "To Autumn" and "La Belle Dame sans Merci"? And what else?

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Beauty as Utility

Which perspective is the right one?




Among the words I've loved, here’s a thought from Professor Ralph Williams at the University of Michigan. I don't have the statement in print, so I’m paraphrasing, but this is close:

“We talk about setting virtue against evil; maybe it’s time to set beauty against evil.”

Maybe one implication is that humans are more likely to agree upon what is beautiful—and its sanctity—than what is good, moral, ethical, legal, and such.






“The Waking” by Theodore Roethke

http://gawow.com/roethke/poems/104.html

I’m a little worn out after the last couple of posts, and I’m busy with readying myself to return to teaching any day now, depending on strike negotiations. Therefore, I’m going to try something I’ve been meaning to do here from time to time—post links to poems that I've found valuable. (I wish I could simply paste the poems into Banjo52, but I’m too wary of copyright issues for that).

In these rancorous times, I’ll try to keep the selections somewhat upbeat, or soothing, or at least interesting enough in language or thought to act as counterpoints to the blaring of hate-mongers out there. No promises, however; I am not a robot.

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