{"id":3505,"date":"2020-05-27T00:00:15","date_gmt":"2020-05-27T04:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/?p=3505"},"modified":"2020-05-27T09:42:43","modified_gmt":"2020-05-27T13:42:43","slug":"may-27-there-lives-the-dearest-freshness-deep-down-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2020\/05\/27\/may-27-there-lives-the-dearest-freshness-deep-down-things\/","title":{"rendered":"May 27 “there lives the dearest freshness deep down things”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wednesday,\u00a0\u00a0 May 27 \u00a0Gerard Manley Hopkins, s.j. \u00a0\u00a0\u201cGod\u2019s Grandeur\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBecause the Holy Ghost over the bent
\nWorld broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 19th century Jesuit poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins, revolutionized poetry with his unchained cadences, which he called \u201csprung rhythm,\u201d and daring vocabulary, words often from Anglo-Saxon, rather than Latinate roots. \u00a0This shocked his Poet Laureate friend, Robert Bridges, \u00a0who berated him for the density of his word choices and cadences both.<\/p>\n

On November 6, 1887, Hopkins wrote Bridges, simultaneously teasing his friend and attempting to explain the density of his poetic language. \u00a0 \u00a0Try reading GMH\u2019s explanation out loud; note that this apologia for demanding word choices emerges as a single, grammatically-correct sentence.<\/p>\n

\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

So, take a deep breath before you begin. \u00a0For that matter, try reading \u201cGod\u2019s Grandeur\u201d out loud as the poet intended.<\/p>\n

Best to read the poet out loud, with pauses, \u00a0several times. \u00a0Perhaps as a moment of gladness and gratitude for an open sky that traces its fingertips across Livernois and caresses my city, its beauty and its troubles both.<\/p>\n

Have a blest week.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

john sj<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Post: \u00a0 Gerard Manley Hopkins, sj \u00a0\u201cGod\u2019s Grandeur\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
\nIt will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
\nIt gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
\nCrushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
\nGenerations have trod, have trod, have trod;
\nAnd all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;<\/p>\n

And wears man\u2019s smudge and shares man\u2019s smell: the soil
\nIs bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.<\/p>\n

And for all this, nature is never spent;
\nThere lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
\nAnd though the last lights off the black West went
\nOh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs \u2014
\nBecause the Holy Ghost over the bent
\nWorld broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Gerard Manley Hopkins \u00a028 July 1844 \u2013 8 June, 1889<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wednesday,\u00a0\u00a0 May 27 \u00a0Gerard Manley Hopkins, s.j. \u00a0\u00a0\u201cGod\u2019s Grandeur\u201d \u201cBecause the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.\u201d The 19th century Jesuit poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins, revolutionized poetry with his unchained cadences, … Continue reading →<\/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\/3505"}],"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=3505"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3507,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3505\/revisions\/3507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}