Spring and Fall

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889)

to a young child

Márgarét, áre you gríeving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leáves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! ás 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:
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.

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889) was a Jesuit priest who burned much of his early work and was highly self-critical. He published very few poems while alive, believing his innovative style (known as “sprung rhythm”) was too unconventional for Victorian readers. It was only thanks to the dedicated efforts of his friend Robert Bridges that his work was preserved and published after his death.