to a young child
Márgarét, áre you gríeving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leáves, líke the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Áh! ás the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you will weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sórrow's spríngs áre the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It ís the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.
References
Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins Now First Published. Ed. Robert Bridges. London: Humphry Milford, 1918. Project Gutenberg Edition produced by Lewis Jones (August 26, 2007 [EBook #22403])
Last modified 29 February 2008