Spring 2015
Just an echo of Eden that we can grasp, that we can glimpse and hear and taste:
“Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning,
Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy,”
Here GMH takes us back to the apple and the tree. But the loss of innocence is sexual too. He
emphasises that Mary was a ‘maid’. That may not surprise us coming from a Jesuit priest. But who is
he urging to: “Have, get, before it cloy,”? Is he urging Jesus to save the innocent before they are
corrupted by this world or is he urging us to take this moment of innocence to our hearts, notice
God’s work and pray? Or maybe it is a prayer for himself. Maybe all of these. The syntax is very
contorted and I think deliberately so.
“Most, O maid’s child, thy choice and worthy the winning.”
could be read as a reminder that his own struggles are worth the heavenly reward or as a fervent
prayers that he might put God’s will first and win through. After all he was human too and bound
to a vow of celibacy. A stanza that begins with
“What is all this juice and all this joy?”
and ends with ‘above all, Jesus’ choice and worth it in the end’ may make us think. For me
Hopkins’ poetry is full of passion. He appreciated all the rich nature of things, the moment, the
inspiration, the insight into why a thing is itself, its god quality if you like. And part of his god quality
was to create poems to God’ glory but from his own fallen nature and it is that stultified, desperate
voice we hear in the second stanza.
“………………………Have, get, before it cloy,
Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning,”
And does that contorted syntax of the final line reflect his inner struggles? I see a priest, but more
than that – or less -- a man with his head bowed, cupped in his hands, praying. Can you hear his cry?
It is the urgent voice of one who wants to be saved.
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The Linnet's Wings Poetry