Spring and Fall: To a young child

Gerard Manley Hopkins 1844 (Stratford, London) – 1889 (Dublin)



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.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 20, 2023

29 sec read
154

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABBCCDDDEEFFGG
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 497
Words 96
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 15

Gerard Manley Hopkins

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