Gerard Manley Hopkins Poems

Look at the Stars

Look at the stars! look, look up at the skies! 
  O look at all the fire-folk sitting in the air! 
  The bright boroughs, the circle-citadels there! 
Down in dim woods the diamond delves! the elves’-eyes! 
The grey lawns cold where gold, where quickgold lies!       
  Wind-beat whitebeam! airy abeles set on a flare! 
  Flake-doves sent floating forth at a farmyard scare! –  
Ah well! it is all a purchase, all is a prize. 
Buy then! bid then! – What? – Prayer, patience, aims, vows. 
Look, look: a May-mess, like on orchard boughs!        
  Look! March-bloom, like on mealed-with-yellow sallows! 
These are indeed the barn; withindoors house 
The shocks. This piece-bright paling shuts the spouse 
  Christ home, Christ and his mother and all his hallows.

– Gerard Manley Hopkins

Selected Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins

Poem of the Day