Monday, November 2, 2009

Spring and Fall: To a young child (Gerald Manley Hopkins)

Oh boy! I didn't know this poem was written by Gerald Manley Hopkins. I adore Hopkins. I knew this poem before tonight, but if asked, I would have said it were written by William Blake. It just seems more his style. This poem doesn't really have the flash that I normally associate with Hopkins.

Death comes to all, eh? An old poem, a universal truth. Funny how those two go together. Maybe there is no flash because the topic is so somber. Maybe Hopkins was in a depressive state.

Gleeful or somber, he's a talented guy. Who else would take the image of a child and an autumn tree and spin the whole of a human life and then reconnect it to the very basic, indivisible childlike self.

Gosh, I love Hopkins!

Favorite line: "Margaret, are you grieving/Over Goldengrove unleaving?"

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What do you think of today's poem?