
English Wordplay ~ Listen and Enjoy
Hopkins loved Our Lady. I therefore dedicate these pages to her namesake, my beloved daughter, Mary.
GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS
His Life through his Poetry
Previous Track: Pied Beauty, The May Magnificat
TRACK 6: BINSEY POPLARS
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Binsey Poplars felled 1879 MY aspens dear, whose airy cages quelled, Quelled or quenched in leaves the leaping sun, All felled, felled, are all felled; Of a fresh and following folded rank Not spared, not one That dandled a sandalled Shadow that swam or sank On meadow and river and wind-wandering weed-winding bank. O if we but knew what we do When we delve or hew-- Hack and rack the growing green! Since country is so tender To touch, her being só slender, That, like this sleek and seeing ball But a prick will make no eye at all, Where we, even where we mean To mend her we end her, When we hew or delve: After-comers cannot guess the beauty been. Ten or twelve, only ten or twelve Strokes of havoc únselve The sweet especial scene, Rural scene, a rural scene, Sweet especial rural scene.
The next track: Dun Scotus's Oxford
Introduction to this Hopkins Feature
Gerard Manley Hopkins Workshop
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We recommend the Oxford Edition and in particular Sean Street's account of The Wreck of the Deutschland, which he was inspired to write from hearing my production of Paul Scofield's reading for BBC Radio 3. We also highly recommend Gerard Manley Hopkins: A Study of Poetic Idiosyncrasy in Relation to Poetic Tradition by Professor Helen Gardner: