Binsey Poplars

Binsey Poplars

felled /79

Original Text
The Later Poetic Manuscripts of Gerard Manley Hopkins in Facsimile, ed. Norman H. MacKenzie (New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1991): 161. PR 4803 H44A6 1991 Robarts Library
1My aspens dear, whose airy cages quelled ,
2  Quelled or quenched in leaves the leaping sun,
3Áll félled, félled, are áll félled;
4    Of a fresh & following folded rank
5  Not spared, not one
6That dandled a sandalled
7    Shadow that swam or sank
8    On meadow & river & wind-wandering weed-winding bank.
9      O if we but knew what we do
10      When we delve or hew --
11        Hack & rack the growing green!
12          Since country is so tender
13          To tóuch, her béing só slénder,
14            That, like this sleek & seeing ball
15            But a prick will make no eye at all,
16        Where we, even where we mean
17          To mend her we end her,
18              When we hew or delve:
19        After-comers cannot guess the beauty been.
20              Ten or twelve, only ten or twelve
21              Strokes of havoc unselve
22        The sweet especial scene,
23        Rural scene, a rural scene,
24        Sweet especial rural scene.
Publication Start Year
1918
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 1996-2000.