The May Magnificat Analysis

Poems of Gerard Manley HopkinsMay 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 opportunestAnd flowers finds soonest?Ask of her, the mighty mother:

Her reply puts this otherQuestion: What is Spring?-Growth in every thing-Flesh and fleece, fur and feather,

Grass and greenworld all together;Star-eyed strawberry-breastedThrostle above her nestedCluster of bugle blue eggs thin

Forms and warms the life within;And bird and blossom swellIn sod or sheath or shell.All things rising, all things sizing

Mary sees, sympathisingWith that world of good,Nature's motherhood.Their magnifying of each its kind

With delight calls to mindHow she did in her storedMagnify the Lord.Well but there was more than this:

Spring's universal blissMuch, had much to sayTo offering Mary May.When drop-of-blood-and-foam-dapple

Bloom lights the orchard-appleAnd thicket and thorp are merryWith silver-surfèd cherryAnd azuring-over greybell makes

Wood banks and brakes wash wet like lakesAnd magic cuckoocallCaps, clears, and clinches all-This ecstasy all through mothering earth

Tells Mary her mirth till Christ's birthTo remember and exultationIn God who was her salvation.

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