RPO -- Gerard Manley Hopkins : Hurrahing in Harvest

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)

Hurrahing in Harvest

1Summer énds now; now, bárbarous in béauty, the stóoks ríse

2Around; up above, what wind-walks! what lovely behaviour

3Of sílk-sack clóuds! has wilder, wilful-wávier

4Meal-drift moulded ever and melted across skies?

5I wálk, I líft up, Í líft úp heart, éyes,

6Down all that glory in the heavens to glean our Saviour;

7And, éyes, héart, what looks, what lips yet gáve you a

8Rapturous love's greeting of realer, of rounder replies?

9And the azurous hung hills are his world-wielding shoulder

10Majestic -- as a stallion stalwart, very-violet-sweet! --

11These things, these things were here and but the beholder

12Wánting; whích two whén they ónce méet,

13The heart rears wings bold and bolder,

14And hurls for him, O half hurls earth for him off under his feet.

Vale of Clwyd Sept. 1 1877.

Notes

1] The manuscript has a note written by Hopkins the precedes the first line:

Sonnet (sprung and outriding rhythm; no counterpoint. Take notice that the outriding feet are not to be confused with dactyls or paeons, though sometimes the line might be scanned either way. The strong syllable in an outriding foot has always a great stress and after the outrider follows a short pause. The paeon is easier and more flowing)

stooks: bundles of hay

Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: The Later Poetic Manuscripts of Gerard Manley Hopkins in Facsimile, ed. Norman H. MacKenzie (New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1991): 134-35. PR 4803 H44A6 1991 Robarts Library
First publication date: 1918
RPO poem editor: Marc R. Plamondon
RP edition: 2006
Recent editing: 2:2006/1/11

Composition date: 1 September 1877
Composition date note: Vale of Clwyd
Form: sonnet
Rhyme: abba abca dedede

Other poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins