Tuesday, November 18, 2008

It's my birthday...

...so you know what that means, don't you?

Yes, of course. It's time for your annual Gerard Manley Hopkins.

It's my birthday, so suck it up.

Ahem. (Cue visual:)


(Cue sonorous voice:)

Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie.
And yet you will weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sorrow's springs are the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.

----"Spring and Fall to a Young Child;" Gerard Manley Hopkins

I love this poem. Nobody says "It's fall, it happens, you're getting older too, and you'll die someday, ya big effin' baby" like GMH.

Sigh.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, after that poem, "Happy Birthday" seems way too trite. On the other hand, [google, google] I see that Hopkins last words were apparently "I am happy, so happy." I think that makes it OK.

Happy Birthday!

Badger said...

I had a college prof who was crazy about GMH and quoted him at every opportunity. That is enough to make me vomit when I read his stuff.

But hey! Happy birthday anyway!