Binsey Poplars Poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Binsey Poplars

Rating: 2.8

My aspens dear, whose airy cages quelled,
Quelled or quenched in leaves the leaping sun,
All felled, felled, are all felled;
Of a fresh and following folded rank
Not spared, not one
That dandled a sandalled
Shadow that swam or sank
On meadow & river & wind-wandering weed-winding bank.

O if we but knew what we do
When we delve or hew —
Hack and rack the growing green!
Since country is so tender
To touch, her being só slender,
That, like this sleek and seeing ball
But a prick will make no eye at all,
Where we, even where we mean
To mend her we end her,
When we hew or delve:
After-comers cannot guess the beauty been.
Ten or twelve, only ten or twelve
Strokes of havoc unselve
The sweet especial scene,
Rural scene, a rural scene,
Sweet especial rural scene.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Gabi Lautenbach 25 April 2016

You're missing a line! Not spared, not one / That dandled a sandalled shadow / That swam or sank

0 1 Reply
Gabi Lautenbach 25 April 2016

I found the report edit poem link and went through the right channel, so never mind the comment... I suppose it serves readers until the poem can be corrected.

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Jacob Bearer 03 July 2012

Although I enjoy Hopkins' poetry very much, I find this poem to be a bit preachy; and because of that it loses its over-all affect - at least in my opinion. I think a poem should be able to draw me into a scene, image, reality and let it do the talking...Usually 'ol Jerry can do that, but this one seems a bit off. Thoughts?

3 8 Reply
Carole Burr 18 February 2006

I love the language of this poem. It brilliantly evokes images of the rural environment. The poet seems to have been sensitive to man's imprint on the countryside. Yet it could be suggested that this is a rather romantic notion of rural life and he seems to have not considered the fact that most rural scenes - particulary idylic ones - are actually man-made.

5 4 Reply
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