Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89). Poems. 1918 (written in 1880).
31. 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. 15
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That has always has extra resonance for me since my dear departed mother, who was very gifted and afflicted by mental illness, was Margaret.
For what it’s worth, I’ve always been a poet myself, and I think lines 13 and 14 should be removed. They add nothing, in my opinion, and are better left out. When I quote this poem, which I do fairly frequently, I always leave those two lines out. Maybe I miss something?
As I said, that’s my all-time favorite poem, and I love many. I wonder if any of you has also been amazed by this poem. It’s relevant today, I suggest, because it’s a certainty that an idiot like Trump would have no clue about this. All previous presidents would get it.
But it was just Veterans Day yesterday. I buried my father, a Marine Corps veteran from WW2, less than two years ago. I think he would approve of this.