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<\/a><\/p>\nRecording of lark song:\u00a0 https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=nyo66_EyOtI<\/a><\/p>\n Gerard Manley Hopkins, sj, a radical innovator among 19th century poets, chose Anglo-Saxon over Latinate English vocabulary and invented \u201cSprung Rhythm\u201d to replace \u00a0classical traditions of rhyme and rhythm \u00a0(http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sprung_rhythm<\/a>). \u00a0Anglo-Saxon lives closer to the ground than the latinate vocabulary brought by Norman conquerors into English (e.g., the Saxons lost, the Normans won so word-sets like \u201ccow\u201d (Anglo Saxon & spoken in the barn yard by hired hands) contrasts with \u201cbeef\u201d (from the French \u201cboef\u201d, \u00a0spoken at the table in the manor house). \u00a0Hopkins thought Norman influences eroded the power and energy of Anglo Saxon. \u00a0 The power and sharp edges of his word choices inspired a host of more recent poets to run similar verbal risks.<\/p>\n Hopkins also paid attention to the toll the British Industrial Revolution took on ordinary working people. \u00a0In today\u2019s poem, look for startling and inventive imagery, some of it bearing down on the agony of human living; \u00a0look for exquisite delicacy in his descriptions of beauty also. \u00a0 Best to read out loud but, given the challenges of Sprung Rhythm and inventive vocabulary, you may want to set aside some time to read it aloud a few times until you figure out what he\u2019s doing.<\/p>\n Have a blest week.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n john sj<\/p>\n Today\u2019s post: The Caged Skylark<\/strong><\/p>\n As a dare-gale skylark scanted in a dull cage Though aloft on turf or perch or poor low stage, Not that the sweet-fowl, song-fowl, needs no rest\u2014 Man\u2019s spirit will be flesh-bound when found at best, August 19 \u2013 G M Hopkins, sj\u00a0 1844-1889 \u201cor wring their barriers in bursts of fear or rage\u201d Recording of lark song:\u00a0 https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=nyo66_EyOtI Gerard Manley Hopkins, sj, a radical innovator among 19th century poets, chose Anglo-Saxon over Latinate English vocabulary … Continue reading
\nMan\u2019s mounting spirit in his bone-house, mean house, dwells\u2014
\nThat bird beyond the remembering his free fells;
\nThis in drudgery, day-labouring-out life\u2019s age.<\/p>\n
\nBoth sing somet\u00edmes the sweetest, sweetest spells,
\nYet both droop deadly s\u00f3metimes in their cells
\nOr wring their barriers in bursts of fear or rage.<\/p>\n
\nWhy, hear him, hear him babble and drop down to his nest,
\nBut his own nest, wild nest, no prison.<\/p>\n
\nBut uncumbered: meadow-down is not distressed
\nFor a rainbow footing it nor he for his b\u00f3nes r\u00edsen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"