Two Men in Black

If I had to pick twelve or so tracks for my Poetry's Greatest Hits compilation CD, there would be some fierce competition. Do I include Eliot's "Journey of the Magi" or "Ash-Wednesday"? Which of Donne's "Holy Sonnets" would make it in, or "A Hymn to God the Father"? Could I possibly justify including some Mark Jarman?

I'm not a hundred percent sure about the track sequencing, but I know this poem would be on the disc, probably the second to last or last song.

Spring and Fall

Gerard Manley Hopkins

          to a young child




MÁRGARÉT, áre you gríeving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leáves, líke the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Áh! ás 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 wíll weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sórrow’s spríngs áre the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It ís the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.




I have yet to figure out his "sprung rhythm," the poetic meter of his own devising which he specifically notates so you don't screw it up. (Never mind for the moment that nearly all of his poetry was unpublished until after his death so you might wonder who he's notating this for.) It's a complex system that's still beyond my comprehension and - more honestly - my interest.


But this poem has always struck a very deep chord in me, something like the bass notes on the piano in Johnny Cash's cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt."





It's dark but there's light shot through it, too. It's all about death, but there's some living that's got to happen. 


Worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie, and yet you will weep and know why.