Poetry meme

[altariel]

I see the poetry meme is going around, so here is one that I was reading and rereading yesterday. The 8th line makes me tingle.

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 héart héard of, ghóst guéssed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Comments

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

That line always confused me, because I couldn't decide whether 'wanwood leafmeal' was adjective+noun, or noun+adverb. I've now decided on the latter, and feel happier for it. But it's line 9 that gets me.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I think noun+adverb too. I haven't quite worked out where to put the stresses in line 9.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Personally, I go for 'will' and 'and'.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Yes, that works for me. Tingles. Thank you.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Interesting - I hear it as noun noun. ie. the worlds of wanwood have died and become leafmeal.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

Me too.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

And another "me too". Perhaps there should be a poll. :)

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting the poem, which I hadn't seen before. I found it a difficult read - I suspect that the Young Child that it is nominally addressed to wouldn't have made much of it :) - but worth the effort. For me, the last line is the "tingle line".

[altariel.livejournal.com]

It's tough stuff, isn't it? I was rereading it throughout yesterday. And this short essay came in useful too.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

As a child I appreciated the scenery and smell of leafmeal and the fresh air of the meter, etc; I briefly wondered what there was to cry about, then noticed she might not even be really crying, it might be just some pretentious grown-up saying she was crying.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Less about Margaret and more about GMH.

I think you're a new poster here (unless you are under a new name)? Welcome to the journal if you are!

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

Always a chilling poem about loss. Thank you for this.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

My pleasure, it's a beautiful piece.

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

I can never quite decide how I feel about Hopkins' intricate style - there are some of his pieces I love (the opening lines of Duns Scotus's Oxford, for example,

"Towery city and branchy between towers;
Cuckoo-echoing, bell-swarmèd, lark-charmèd, rook-racked, river-rounded;" )

and other times when I just find his syntax overly laboured and precious. It took me several attempts to be able to say "worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie" even in my head! (Though I agree with you and steepholm, I think it's noun-then-adverb. There's something terribly Lothlorienish about that line!)

But it's good, I think, to have to really concentrate and work at understanding a poem sometimes. Reading that one almost equates to trying to read mediaeval Occitan troubadour poems when I was an undergrad - sweeping first read, work painstakingly through it again for the meaning of each word and line, then put the whole thing back together working out the rhythm and try to read/say the thing with a sense of the whole. Phew.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I flipped through Tolkien's letters: only one mention of Hopkins, in the context of recognition (lack of). I suppose it makes sense that the Fall preoccupies both writers.

[intertext.livejournal.com]

I adore Hopkins: he's one of my favourite poets, even though I don't completely understand his very complicated Biblical images. I agree about the structure of wanwood leafmeal. The whole thing gives me chills.

[intertext.livejournal.com]

oh, and here's my visual interpretation of "wanwood leafmeal"

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Lovely. Thank you.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I think I last read Hopkins when I was a teenager. I barely understood a word, although the sound had a strong effect anyway.

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

I have tried to like Hopkins' poetry. I can see where you and others have pointed out how particular lines are good, but it just doesn't work for me. I think it reads to me like sensory overload.

But it's always good to see poems on my flist whether I like them or not.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I get a heady rush from his poetry, although I don't read it very often. I know exactly what you mean about sensory overload. I made the mistake of reading it just before starting teaching, and I was in a completely weird head-space throughout.

[stultiloquentia.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting. I like that a lot.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

My pleasure :-)