This week’s Tuesday Poem is from the deep, deep wells of Victorian poetry, with English poet and Jesuit priest, Gerald Manley Hopkins (see awesome retro collection below). Although largely unread during his own time (sigh), this Victorian is now widely regarded as one of the most innovative poets of his era, and this week’s poem certainly celebrates his experimental nature. I am particularly drawn to Hopkins for the dynamic idiosyncratic energy that his poetry seems to hold, largely due to the repetition and his famous ‘sprung rhythm’, which propels the reader forward and forward.
Repeat that, repeat
Repeat that, repeat,
Cuckoo, bird, and open ear wells, heart-springs, delightfully sweet,
With a ballad, with a ballad, a rebound
Off trundled timber and scoops of the hillside ground, hollow hollow hollow ground:
The whole landscape flushes on a sudden at a sound.
Pop back to the hub for a special posting of ‘When the Sister Walks’, from Tuesday Poet Sarah Jane Barnett’s new collection, and to dip into what the other Tuesday Poem editors have to offer this week – there is always something for everyone among our collective pages!
September 4, 2012 at 9:38 am
Just read this one aloud – it’s more or less perfection isn’t it… how simple, and yet so fulfilling – I just love the last line. I didn’t find Hopkins until late in life up at Victoria University when Peter Whiteford introduced me to the beautiful ‘Spring & Fall (Margaret are you grieving)’ – of course, I loved it, it spoke to me personally.
September 6, 2012 at 5:17 am
Hello, Maggie! I first encountered Hopkins’ poetry at university as well and given his inventiveness (considering his era!), I rather took to him. Isn’t ‘Spring & Fall (Margaret are you grieving)’ beautiful? ‘And yet you will weep & know why. Now no matter, child, the name: Sorrow’s springs are the same’. Cue multiple sighs.
September 4, 2012 at 8:24 pm
I have always loved Gerald Manley Hopkins’ poetry: thanks for sharing this one. Is the cover iage a contemporary edition of his work–in which case, “must get.”
September 6, 2012 at 5:03 am
Sorry, Mary is right, Helen – it is an old secondhand collection that I was lucky to pick up for not all that much. Isn’t the cover fab? Pleased that you like a bit of old Hopkins
September 4, 2012 at 10:21 pm
That’s an old cover Helen – it’s my ratty old cover of my ratty old loved book bought in 1980. This poet is simply bliss – I always think of him in spring, which of course it is here in NZ. All that bouncing gorgeous energy and rhythm and sound, and of course the poem Spring … ‘Nothing is so beautiful as Spring – / When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush; / Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens …’ But do you know, Elizabeth I don’t believe I’ve ever really engaged with this poem before, so thank you.
September 6, 2012 at 5:08 am
Ah, so this poem must seem so appropriate to read, given the green, lush spring season! The ‘whole landscape flushes’ seems so fertile and spring-like to me, too. It’s lovely to have you pop by, Mary, and I’m glad you found a second-look at ‘Repeat that, repeat’ heartily enriching.
September 5, 2012 at 6:47 pm
Choice! ‘The whole landscape flushes on a sudden at a sound.’ He must have been a good reader out loud to write that!
September 6, 2012 at 5:20 am
Yes, I agree, Helen! His poetry does seem to lend itself to reading out loud or performance – all that rhythm and repetition. I love how unexpected some of his phrases are: ‘on a sudden at a sound’. Thanks for popping by, Helen – it’s always a pleasure to have you visit