Selected Sonnets and Other Lyrics by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Page 13 of 21 - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Purchase full notes for £5.95 (aprox $9.28)
In the next lines, the rhythmic patterns are more complex, but the unusual threefold patterns of stress (either three unstressed or three stressed syllables together) remain a feature of the poem throughout:
In some respects, this is a typical Romantic poem in the way in which a child’s intimations are made so central to its theme. Adults generally do not cry at the falling of leaves in a forest, but ‘come to such sights colder.’ Our hearts, Hopkins implies, are colder too, and we should welcome the ‘fresh thoughts’ of this child. Such childhood purity and freshness are also celebrated in Spring , and the reader should be reminded again of Jesus’ teaching that we must become as little children if we wish to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Indeed, one obvious question posed by the poem is present in the title. Why ‘ Spring and Fall,’ given that the poem exclusively concentrates on autumn, or the Fall as it is sometimes called. Probably, Margaret herself – the ‘ young child ’ of the subtitle, represents spring, and, therefore, her own ‘Fall,’ whether moral (through sinfulness), or physical (through death) is seen as inevitable from the start. Hopkins’s point here is that ‘Sorrow’s springs are the same.’ We all ‘spring’ from a lost paradise, and the birth – death – rebirth pattern of the seasons is believed in traditional Christianity to be a consequence of humanity’s Fall.
Obviously, little Margaret has no understanding of such complex theological teachings, but Hopkins imagines that she has some strange intimation that all is not well with the world in which she lives: ‘Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed/What heart heard of, ghost guessed.’ The heart’s intuitions are deeper, Hopkins suggests, than word or thought can explain. The circle of age and youth, spring and fall, birth and death, is completed by the final line, which partially repeats the sense of the first: ‘It is Margaret you mourn for.’ In a sense, therefore, the poem ends with Margaret’s own death.
We know from one of Hopkins’ letters that this poem was not founded on a real incident, and therefore the choice of the name Margaret is of some interest. There is a medieval poem written by the anonymous author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight called Pearl about the death of a pure maiden, and ‘Margaret’ means ‘a pearl.’
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
In some respects, this is a typical Romantic poem in the way in which a child’s intimations are made so central to its theme. Adults generally do not cry at the falling of leaves in a forest, but ‘come to such sights colder.’ Our hearts, Hopkins implies, are colder too, and we should welcome the ‘fresh thoughts’ of this child. Such childhood purity and freshness are also celebrated in Spring , and the reader should be reminded again of Jesus’ teaching that we must become as little children if we wish to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Indeed, one obvious question posed by the poem is present in the title. Why ‘ Spring and Fall,’ given that the poem exclusively concentrates on autumn, or the Fall as it is sometimes called. Probably, Margaret herself – the ‘ young child ’ of the subtitle, represents spring, and, therefore, her own ‘Fall,’ whether moral (through sinfulness), or physical (through death) is seen as inevitable from the start. Hopkins’s point here is that ‘Sorrow’s springs are the same.’ We all ‘spring’ from a lost paradise, and the birth – death – rebirth pattern of the seasons is believed in traditional Christianity to be a consequence of humanity’s Fall.
Obviously, little Margaret has no understanding of such complex theological teachings, but Hopkins imagines that she has some strange intimation that all is not well with the world in which she lives: ‘Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed/What heart heard of, ghost guessed.’ The heart’s intuitions are deeper, Hopkins suggests, than word or thought can explain. The circle of age and youth, spring and fall, birth and death, is completed by the final line, which partially repeats the sense of the first: ‘It is Margaret you mourn for.’ In a sense, therefore, the poem ends with Margaret’s own death.
We know from one of Hopkins’ letters that this poem was not founded on a real incident, and therefore the choice of the name Margaret is of some interest. There is a medieval poem written by the anonymous author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight called Pearl about the death of a pure maiden, and ‘Margaret’ means ‘a pearl.’
previous next
Purchase full notes for £5.95 (aprox $9.28)
