tree_and_leaf: Peter Davison in Five's cricket gear, leaning on wall with nose in book, looking a bit like Peter Wimsey. (Books)
tree_and_leaf ([personal profile] tree_and_leaf) wrote2009-04-28 11:13 am

NAPOMO: Gerard Manley Hopkins

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies dráw fláme;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves—goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying Whát I do is me: for that I came.

Í say móre: the just man justices;
Kéeps gráce: thát keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is—
Chríst—for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces.

Gerard Manley Hopkins. I do love this poem.
aunty_marion: Vaguely Norse-interlace dragon, with knitting (Default)

[personal profile] aunty_marion 2009-04-28 05:02 pm (UTC)(link)
That one and 'Pied Beauty' are a couple of the most wonderful collections of 'the best words in the best order' I can think of.