by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844 - 1889)
Spelt from Sibyl's Leaves
Language: English
Earnest, earthless, equal, attuneable, ' vaulty, voluminous, … stupendous Evening strains to be tíme’s vást, ' womb-of-all, home-of-all, hearse-of-all night. Her fond yellow hornlight wound to the west, ' her wild hollow hoarlight hung to the height Waste; her earliest stars, earl-stars, ' stárs principal, overbend us, Fíre-féaturing heaven. For earth ' her being has unbound, her dapple is at an end, as- tray or aswarm, all throughther, in throngs; ' self ín self steedèd and páshed—qúite Disremembering, dísmémbering ' áll now. Heart, you round me right With: Óur évening is over us; óur night ' whélms, whélms, ánd will end us. Only the beak-leaved boughs dragonish ' damask the tool-smooth bleak light; black, Ever so black on it. Óur tale, O óur oracle! ' Lét life, wáned, ah lét life wind Off hér once skéined stained véined variety ' upon, áll on twó spools; párt, pen, páck Now her áll in twó flocks, twó folds—black, white; ' right, wrong; reckon but, reck but, mind But thése two; wáre of a wórld where bút these ' twó tell, each off the óther; of a rack Where, selfwrung, selfstrung, sheathe- and shelterless, ' thóughts agaínst thoughts ín groans grínd.
Confirmed with Hopkins, Gerard Manley. Poems. London: Humphrey Milford, 1918; Bartleby.com, 1999. www.bartleby.com/122/32.html.
Note: Bartleby.com has some notes on some of the words found in here like "throughther".Authorship:
- by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844 - 1889), "Spelt from Sibyl's Leaves", first published 1918 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Milton Byron Babbitt (1916 - 2011), "Spelt from Sibyl's Leaves" [baritone, viola, cello and clarinet], from Two Sonnets, no. 1. [text verified 1 time]
- by Scott Gendel (b. 1977), "Spelt from Sibyl's Leaves", 2001. [soprano (or mezzo-soprano), violin, and harp] [text not verified]
Researcher for this page: T. P. (Peter) Perrin
This text was added to the website: 2004-11-22
Line count: 14
Word count: 198