Selected Sonnets and Other Lyrics by Gerard Manley Hopkins
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Spring and Fall
GLOSSARY
‘Goldengrove’ – a name evocative of a wood in autumn, but there are numerous Goldengroves around the country, so this could be a real place.
‘unleaving’ – a coinage referring to the fall of leaves in autumn.
‘wanwood’ – ‘wan’ is pale and colourless, so the coinage suggests a dead, empty, colourless forest.
‘leafmeal’ – Another coinage. Rather than the white ‘meal’ of the clouds in Hurrahing in Harvest , Hopkins is probably thinking of brownish oatmeal. From a distance, a forest floor of leaves would resemble oatmeal.
‘ghost’ – spirit or soul.
THOUGHTS
The remarkable poignancy of the first two lines is partly a result of Hopkins’ mastery of rhythm. The reader is arrested, at first, by a line beginning on a strong stress, as it is ‘usual’ for English verse to be iambic, and therefore to begin on an unstressed syllable. It has been pointed out before that a lesser poet would have conformed to expectations and written ‘O Margaret…’ thereby creating a full octosyllabic line. The rhythm that follows is basically one strong stress followed by three unstressed syllables:
GLOSSARY
‘Goldengrove’ – a name evocative of a wood in autumn, but there are numerous Goldengroves around the country, so this could be a real place.
‘unleaving’ – a coinage referring to the fall of leaves in autumn.
‘wanwood’ – ‘wan’ is pale and colourless, so the coinage suggests a dead, empty, colourless forest.
‘leafmeal’ – Another coinage. Rather than the white ‘meal’ of the clouds in Hurrahing in Harvest , Hopkins is probably thinking of brownish oatmeal. From a distance, a forest floor of leaves would resemble oatmeal.
‘ghost’ – spirit or soul.
THOUGHTS
The remarkable poignancy of the first two lines is partly a result of Hopkins’ mastery of rhythm. The reader is arrested, at first, by a line beginning on a strong stress, as it is ‘usual’ for English verse to be iambic, and therefore to begin on an unstressed syllable. It has been pointed out before that a lesser poet would have conformed to expectations and written ‘O Margaret…’ thereby creating a full octosyllabic line. The rhythm that follows is basically one strong stress followed by three unstressed syllables:
Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
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