April 23 It begins to smell like spring

Monday, April 23,  “What is all this juice and all this joy?”

Gerard Manley Hopkins, sj wrote  “Spring” in language alive with sensual delight, a breath of  fresh air after this April’s ice storms and cold winds.  “Risk some delight” says Hopkins.   Best to read every poem out loud, with pauses.   Hopkins rewards the reader’s attention more than most.

Have a blest week,

john sj

Today’s Post   “Spring”  

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 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 in girl and boy,
Most, O maid’s child, thy choice and worthy the winning.

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