WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - The Poetry Fix: "Spring"

Episode Date: April 2, 2024

In this episode of The Poetry Fix, we read "Spring," by Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Welcome to the Poetry Fix on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. I'm your host, Erica Kaiba, bringing you your weekly fix of poetry from across time. Today we're reading Spring by Gerard Manley Hopkins. Hopkins does in this poem what Hopkins does best, taking in all the wonder of the natural world and finding religious truth within it. He's also a master of alliteration. Keep an ear out for those repeating consonants. Spring is a Petrarchan sonnet, and the octave leads with images of beauty in the season.

Hopkins begins by observing the beauty of weeds, uplifting something that we often see as undesirable. From elevating weeds, Hopkins makes tiny thrush's eggs a microcosm of the heavens. As a poet, Hopkins has an eye for that which many overlook. In the Cestet, Hopkins gives us a little. a double Volta. First, he offers an image of spring as a mirror of Eden. Then he gives someone an injunction to have, get, before it cloy, before it cloud, and sour with sinning. At first, we're led to think Hopkins is telling us to go out and seize the moment, but he interjects this phrase by putting Christ, Lord, right before and sour with sinning. What is this phrase

doing there? What role does it Christ play in the house? and the getting. The way Hopkins arranges the syntax, his request is addressed to Christ. We realize that he is making a sort of prayer for Christ to have, get something, before it's sour with sinning. What is the it Hopkins refers to? We find out as Hopkins delivers the second Volta. It is the innocent minds of children that Hopkins prays for Christ to preserve, the May Day in girl and boy. The use of May Day conjures the image of children being in the springtime of their lives, when it is most important for them to be led in the faith that will sustain them throughout their lives. In the Gospels, Christ has a special

care for little children. He tells us that only the childlike will enter the kingdom of heaven, which Hopkins alludes to when he writes that children are most thy choice and worthy the winning. Christ also warns against leading children into sin. He who does so the Gospels tell us, would be better off if he were thrown into the sea with a millstone over his neck. Hopkins works out of this very theme, except instead of warning the wicked not to corrupt the children, he entreats the Christ to protect them. Just as people pick flowers during the spring to preserve them before they wilt with fall, the Lord preserves the heart of children once he has taken hold of them. This way, their youth won't cloy with overweening vitality,

cloud with confused desires or sour with the influence of the wicked as they mature, they are able to enter the kingdom of heaven with a child's heart. With all that said, let's dive in. Spring by Gerard Manley Hopkins. Nothing is so beautiful as Spring. When weeds and wheels shoot long and lovely and lush, Thresh's eggs look like little low heavens, and thrush through the echoing timber,

does so rinse and ring the ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing. The glassy pear tree leaves and blooms. They brush the descending blue. That blue is all in a rush with richness. The racing lambs too have fair their fling. What is all this juice and all this joy? A strain of the earth's sweet being in the beginning in Eden Garden.

Have, get, before it cloy, before it cloud, Christ Lord, and sour with sinning. Innocent mind and Mayday and girl and boy. Most, O maid's child, thy choice, and worthy the winning. You've been listening to The Poetry Fix with Eric Kaiba. Join me next week and we'll be reading Easter 1916 by William Butler Yates.