Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89). Poems 1918, Spring and Fall: To a young child
MÁRGARÉT, áre you gríeving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leáves, líke the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Áh! ás the heart grows older 5
It will come to such sights colder By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you wíll weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name: 10
Sórrow’s spríngs áre the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It ís the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.
Gerard Manley Hopkins was an innovator whose poetry was not published until decades after his death. Hopkins was born in Stratford, Essex, which is
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It has a direct clarity of rhyme, which it almost sounds like a nursery rhyme. The speaker addresses the child, trying to understand how she thinks and feels. "Ma’gare’t, are you gri’eving / Over Goldengrove unleaving?" (Lines 1-2 Norton) It seems as though the speaker is attempting to meet the child on her terms by using this diction. He is implicitly making the connection between the turning of the seasons and death. While the turning of the season will bring a new spring, human seasons will bring a final departure and final "fall" (Ellis 151). The next two couplets imply that his knowledge of man is more important and melancholy than the falling of the leaves. "Lea’ves, like the things of man, you / with your fresh thoughts care for, can you?" (Lines 3-4 Norton). This reflective tone allows us to experience the sympathy the speaker feels toward the child. The sorrow she feels at the present time will not go away as she grows older. Its presence will remain, but for different …show more content…
"A’h! a’s the heart grows o’lder / It will come to such insights colder / By and By, nor spare a sign / Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie; / And yet you will weep and know why" (lines 5-9). The use of alliteration helps to emphasize the ultimate reality of this child’s pain. The tone becomes stronger and less sympathetic. …"yet you will weep and know why"(line 9), is both the child’s and Hopkins's recognition of mortality.
The final couplets offer an accurate depiction of the poem’s true meaning. "It is’ the bli’ght ma’n was bo’rn for, / It is Margaret you mourn for" (lines 14-15 Norton). Nature’s silent eloquence of death has caused Margaret to intuitively realize that there are other sources of death and grief, not life. (153 Ellis) It is almost as though she comes to terms with her spirit of adulthood and fate. This could also be a way of Hopkins coming to terms with his
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