Page:Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1918.djvu/52

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38
POEMS '78

18

The May Magnificat

May is Mary's month, and I
Muse at that and wonder why:
Her feasts follow reason,
Dated due to season—


Candlemas, Lady Day;
But the Lady Month, May,
Why fasten that upon her,
With a feasting in her honour?


Is it only its being brighter
Than the most are must delight her?
Is it opportunest
And flowers finds soonest?


Ask of her, the mighty mother:
Her reply puts this other
Question: What is Spring?—
Growth in every thing—


Flesh and fleece, fur and feather,
Grass and greenworld all together;
Star-eyed strawberry-breasted
Throstle above her nested


Cluster of bugle blue eggs thin
Forms and warms the life within;
And bird and blossom swell
In sod or sheath or shell.