by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844 - 1889)
Spring
Language: English
Nothing is so beautiful as Spring When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush; Thrush's eggs look little low heavens, and thrush Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing; The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush With richness; the racing lambs too have 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 in girl and boy, Most, O maid's child, thy choice and worthy the winning.
Authorship:
- by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844 - 1889), "Spring", appears in Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins, first published 1918 [author's text not yet checked 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 Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "Spring", 1999 [ soprano and piano ], from Four Songs of Gerard Manley Hopkins, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Ned Rorem (1923 - 2022), "Spring" [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2007-05-07
Line count: 14
Word count: 125