{"id":1371,"date":"2015-05-13T00:00:35","date_gmt":"2015-05-13T04:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=1371"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:49:24","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:49:24","slug":"may-13-full-blown-leaves-flowers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2015\/05\/13\/may-13-full-blown-leaves-flowers\/","title":{"rendered":"May 13 &#8211; full blown leaves, &amp; flowers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Wednesday, May 13 \u00a0\u201c\u00a0a billion \u00a0times told lovelier&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Looks like a fine strong spring day \u2014 high pressure,\u00a0breezy, leaves and flowering trees dancing all around. \u00a0 A good morning to stand still a minute, breathe in deeply, stand still a little more, and read one of Gerard Manley Hopkin\u2019s magical poems.<\/p>\n<p>Hopkins\u2019 poems are [in]famous for the density of their vocabulary. \u00a0If you want to catch all the descriptive meaning packed in these 16 sonnet lines, bring a good dictionary. \u00a0Hopkins\u2019 life-long friend Robert Bridges often ground his aesthetic teeth at what seemed to him to be GMH&#8217;s unnecessary complexity.<\/p>\n<p>On November 6, 1887, Hopkins wrote Bridges, attempting to explain the density of his poetic language; try reading GMH\u2019s explanation out loud. \u00a0For that matter, try reading &#8220;The Windhover&#8221; out loud as the poet intended.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cPlainly if it is possible to express a subtle and recondite thought on a subtle and recondite subject in a subtle and recondite way and with great felicity and perfection in the end, something must be sacrificed, with so trying a task, in the process, and this may be the being at once, nay perhaps even the being without explanation at all, intelligible.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t you wish you could write like that? \u00a0You\u2019d have to have patient friends as readers though.<\/p>\n<p>Have a blest day,<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>john sj<\/p>\n<p><strong>Today\u2019s Post \u00a0 \u00a0&#8211; \u00a0 &#8220;The Windhover: \u00a0To Christ our Lord\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I caught this morning morning\u2019s minion, king-<br \/>\ndom of daylight\u2019s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in<br \/>\nhis riding<br \/>\nOf the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding<br \/>\nHigh there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing<br \/>\nIn his ecstasy! \u00a0then off, off forth on swing,<br \/>\nAs a skate\u2019s heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl<br \/>\nand gliding<br \/>\nRebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding<br \/>\nStirred for a bird,\u2013the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!<\/p>\n<p>Brute beauty and valor and act, oh, air, pride, plume here<br \/>\nBuckle! \u00a0And the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion<br \/>\nTimes told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!<\/p>\n<p>No wonder of it: \u00a0sh\u00e9er pl\u1ed1d makes plough down sillion<br \/>\nShine, and blue-bleak embers, a my dear,<br \/>\nFall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermilion.<\/p>\n<p>Gerard Manley Hopkins \u00a028 July 1844 &#8211; 8 June, 1889<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/170\/2014\/11\/GMHopkins.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-891\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/170\/2014\/11\/GMHopkins.jpg\" alt=\"GMHopkins\" width=\"220\" height=\"295\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wednesday, May 13 \u00a0\u201c\u00a0a billion \u00a0times told lovelier&#8221; Looks like a fine strong spring day \u2014 high pressure,\u00a0breezy, leaves and flowering trees dancing all around. \u00a0 A good morning to stand still a minute, breathe in deeply, stand still a &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2015\/05\/13\/may-13-full-blown-leaves-flowers\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11641],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1371"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1371"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1943,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1371\/revisions\/1943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}