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.
Commentary
A bit about this poem, it takes a few readings to truly “get” it. About a little girl who weeps for the leaves that die in fall. Hopkins language here is a lot less compressed than most of his other works and hence in being less ornate it ends up being startlingly elegant.
———————————————————– BIOGRAPHICAL SNIPPETS
Gerard Manley Hopkins is one of the great unsung poets, virtually unknown in his lifetime. We have his poetry today only because it was collected and published by his friends after his death. It has some of the obsessive ornateness and sentimentality of the Victorians, but also a startling musicality which is ahead of its time and ours.
Hopkins began his adult life, like many others of his time and middle-class background, as an earnest student at Oxford, concerned with the minutest details of religious practice. Like many others, Hopkins wound up “swimming the Tiber”, that is, going from the Church of England to the Church of Rome: and, like many others, he was received there by John Henry Newman. The feelings of the converts’ families are exemplified by a Mrs. Arnold, who wrote to Newman, “Sir, you have now for the second time been the cause of my husband’s becoming a member of the Church of Rome and from the bottom of my heart I curse you for it.” Not content with this, she also threw a brick through the window of the church where her husband was being received. Hopkins died in Dublin in 1889, aged 44. The first collection of his poetry was published in 1918.
— Kamal
Show 8 commentsHide comments
From the Wondering Minstrels mailing list, 1999–2008.
Rick Domas RCN Acct · 4 October 2002
To Whom It May Concern:
I was introduced to this poem in I believe a college (or was it high school?) intro English lit course and fell in love with it from the beginning. Now, as I truly am older, bearing the weight of the deaths of family members, friends and the horrible events of Sept 11 2001, the deeper meaning of this poem is oh so clearly evident.
Rick in Needham
Filmalinda · 30 September 2003
As one of the other readers has already pointed out, you have not only the title of the poem wrong, but the author’s name. Appalling.
Jodeci Jodeci · 12 September 2004
This is quite an eloquent poem and it’s symbolism sparks fire in a romantic’s heart. The poem speaks; Not just for itself but to the heart of the readers. It is a poem about the fall from innocense to experience the sudden realization of a mans mortality to a child
palindsay · 3 April 2006
I believe this poem is not about true death but the death of childhood. She is mourning the loss of her youth and innocence as we do when we first become aware of the world around us. I first read this poem in high school and have loved it ever since. Phoebe
Dorothy Robinson · 9 June 2006
For me, this is a timeless poem…it moved me when I was young, and moves me still.
Thanks for all the work that goes into making poetry available online!
–Sister Dorothy, OSB
Alan Madsen · 4 October 2006
I think that this poem is not just a fifteen line poem, but a sonnet with an added line
Alan Madsen · 4 October 2006
Am i th only one who thinks this a sonnet with an extra line?
Michael Gilman · 11 July 2007
I first came accross this wonderful poem, and Hopkins, in the book, “A View From A Broad,” by, of all people, Bette Midler!
Asbestos