Gerard Manley Hopkins, selected poems Contents
Language and tone in Spring and Fall
Language and voice
- the poem is written in couplets as a lyric in sprung rhythm. Each line basically has four stresses (i.e. a tetrameter), apart from the last line, which only has three stresses
- Hopkins marks a number of the stresses, sometimes a little oddly, as in ‘Ah! ás..'. This would more naturally be read as only a three-stress (trimeter) line
- there are the other usual features of Hopkins' poetry, too: compound epithets, alliterations and some internal rhymes
- ‘Goldengrove' is a striking epithet, as is ‘wanwood' which contains layers of meaning
- ‘worlds of wanwood' is an effective image for a sad world
- the poetic devices make the poem idiosyncratic yet charming. It has a gentle sadness, very different to the despair Hopkins was to experience a few short years later.
Investigating Spring and Fall
- What meanings can you find in the compound epithets ‘Goldengrove', ‘wanwood', ‘leafmeal'?
- Can you reconcile the phrases ‘yet you will weep and know why' with ‘nor ghost guessed'?
- Is there anything in particular that you find appealing in the poem?
A rhyming 2-line unit of verse.
The words of a song
A term given by Gerard Manley Hopkins to his versification. It does have a regular basic metre, but contains additional feet or outriders and other planned irregularities.
A line of verse consisting of four metrical feet (in modern verse) or eight feet (in classical verse).
A line of verse of three feet or stresses.
An epithet is the literary term for an adjective. A compound epithet is where two adjectives or an adjective plus another part of speech are put together to form a single descriptive idea.
Alliteration is a device frequently used in poetry or rhetoric (speech-making) whereby words starting with the same consonant are used in close proximity- e.g. 'fast in fires', 'stars, start'.
The device, frequently used at the ends of lines in poetry, where words with the same sound are paired, sometimes for contrast ' for example, 'breath' and 'death'.
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