Sárospataki Füzetek 18. (2014)

2014 / 1. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - Frank Sawyer: Gerard Manley Hopkins: "Christ plays in ten thousand places"

Frank Sawyer

(as he himself admitted) in a “raw and unmitigated” way with the human situation, which he always views as under a divine prerogative. His theological poetry is part of his worship.

Many of Hopkins’ poems include moments of clear psychological and spiritual insight. That is true in the following poem which moves suavely like a trombone from note to note, or here, statement to statement and theme to theme, and back again:

Spring and Fall: to a Young Child

Margaret, are you grieving Over Ooldengrove 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 leaf meal23 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.

This verse is addressed to a young child who is sad that the yellow leaves of a golden grove of trees are falling at the approach of winter. ‘Goldengrove’ is a name for a beautiful, idyllic and magical place of play and joy for the child. The little girl grieves at the signs of decay: her thoughts are ‘fresh’, that is, young and innocent, and they care for the living beauty all around. The poet says (not directly to Margaret, but in his own mind to himself) that the heart grows colder as it learns to accept “such sights” as decay, suffering, and death. Even if whole forests are loosing leaves, we spare no sigh. The terminology Hopkins invents for this is masterful: “.. .nor spare a sigh/though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie”. Notice also that the six main words in this phrase are coupled in alliterations. The poet uses alliteration to add a surge of power to his thoughts, as in the key phrase, “sorrow’s springs are the same”.

23 An original specification of'piecemeal'. 'Wanwood' is a word indicating the waning of life, the pallor of dying leaves.

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Sárospataki Füzetek 17. évfolyam | 2014 | 1