Gerard Manley Hopkins: In the Valley of the Elwy

May 23, 1877

I remember a house where all were good
   To me, God knows, deserving no such thing:
   Comforting smell breathed at very entering,
Fetched fresh, as I suppose, off some sweet wood.
That cordial air made those kind people a hood
   All over, as a bevy of eggs the mothering wing
   Will, or mild nights the new morsels of Spring:
Why, it seemed of course; seemed of right it should.

Lovely the woods, waters, meadows, combes, vales,
All the air things wear that build this world of Wales;
   Only the inmate does not correspond:

God, lover of souls, swaying considerate scales,
Complete thy creature dear O where it fails,
   Being mighty a master, being a father and fond.

[Poems (fourth edition) ed. W. H. Gardner and N. H. MacKenzie, 34.]

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Fri. 05/23/03 10:12:55 PM
Categorized as Literary.