A Prayer For Father Hopkins

Pray for Margaret you Jesuit priest, who wept for falling leaves but cast no blame. Her soul, as leaf-meal lies, is now the same in Heaven she can now confront her beast. Oh! Grief, not sweet-or-sour, but only grief, as man was born for blight - same as our shame, you twist your words like in a parlor game. In flown fine-flowers you found your relief. My poor pocket of pence, poor pence of mine pray! Pray for us, pray you Jesuit priest --- for motion of your heart, your heart is fine, with all your want you could not make pine, pine. Yet, light you gave; you gave the light at least to cast before us a poetic feast. Gerard Manley Hopkins -1844-1889: Jesuit priest and poet. Father of sprung rhythm, he is a hard read but few poets have as much to teach in rhythm, language, style and many other aspects of poetry. Hopkins' health, both mental and physical, had always been delicate; he was prone to digestive problems and severe depression. Even though agnostic, I am always uplifted by Hopkins' inter-weaving of sound, the sweep and swing of words. His is poetry which attempts to break from the plodding regularity of french-influenced metrical verse. Hopkins brought back beat to English poetry, structuring his verse around stresses in a breath rather than metrical feet. His work: http://oldpoetry.com/oauthor/show/Gerard_Manley_Hopkins