Plough My Account Sign Out
My Account
228x129BlackWordmarkTaglinefullwidth 139x66BlackWordmark 441x212BlackWordMarkTagline 220x106BlackWordmark
    View Cart

    Subtotal: $

    Checkout
    Current Issue cover of Plough Quarterly Issue 39
    watercolor painting of yellow leaves
    Articles Books and Culture Poetry

    Gerard Manley Hopkins’s “Spring and Fall”

    By Gerard Manley Hopkins and Julian Peters

    April 28, 2020
    1 Comments
    In This Article Article 1 Comments
    Next Article: Life or Death Read
    1 Comments
    1 Comments
    Post a Comment
      Submit

    • JL Gerhardt

      I love this poem--"unleaving" is such a powerful word (like so many of Hopkins' inventions). The image of the adult Margaret above the child Margaret, both weeping, is arresting. Thank you!

     

    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: / Sorrows 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.
    Contributed By GerardManleyHopkins Gerard Manley Hopkins

    Gerard Manley Hopkins, who in life was considered a failure as both a poet and a priest, posthumously became one of the great poets of the modern era.

    Learn More
    Contributed By JulianPeters Julian Peters

    Julian Peters is an illustrator and comic book artist living in Montreal, Canada, who focuses on adapting classical poems into graphic art. His work has been exhibited internationally and published in several poetry and graphic art collections.

    Learn More
    1 Comments
    You have ${x} free ${w} remaining. This is your last free article this month. We hope you've enjoyed your free articles. This article is reserved for subscribers.

      Already a subscriber? Sign in

    Try 3 months of unlimited access. Start your FREE TRIAL today. Cancel anytime.

    Start free trial now