Lockdown: Day 21. Forget-me-nots
Walking around our garden and seeing the spring flowers, a line from Gerard Manley Hopkins came into my head: ‘there lives the dearest freshness deep down things.’ I looked it up when I got inside and here it is, ‘God’s Grandeur.’ The flowers are, of course, forget-me-nots along with a single solitary celandine.
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings
6 Comments
Margot Kinberg
April 13, 2020OH, that’s lovely, Christine, and so is the ‘photo. I love the way poetry can lift us up like that. Thanks for sharing – most welcome during this time…
Christine Poulson
April 13, 2020It is always lovely to hear from you, Margot. I find I am turning to poetry more than usual in these difficult times. More are planned for the days ahead.
tracybham
April 13, 2020This may be a duplicate comment. I tried to comment and got some message about not being able to connect.
The photo is lovely, Christine. I admit that I did not know what forget-me-not flowers looked like, after all this time. They are very appealing and would probably fit in well with our climate, except that drought is always threatening here. I will look into it.
Today is day 29 of the “stay at home” restrictions here. I am feeling a bit better emotionally and mentally since we have gotten out in the yard (very small but very overgrown) and done some work, mostly weeding.
Christine Poulson
April 13, 2020Both messages came through, Tracy. Good to hear from you. Forget-me-nots are common here. Maybe they do well in a damp climate? Glad you are managing to get outside. I think it makes a big difference.
Moira@Clothes in Books
May 17, 2020I’m a big fan of Gerard Manley Hopkins – his style so distinctive.
I love the one that starts
Margaret are you grieving over goldengrove unleaving..
Christine Poulson
May 17, 2020He is a marvellous poet and I often think of that poem too in autumn.