Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins · Gerard Manley Hopkins

For a Picture of St. Dorothea

2 of 73 · 1 min of reading

I BEAR a basket lined with grass;

I am so light, I am so fair,

That men must wonder as I pass

And at the basket that I bear,

Where in a newly-drawn green litter

Sweet flowers I carry,--sweets for bitter.

Lilies I shew you, lilies none,

None in Caesar's gardens blow,--

And a quince in hand,--not one

Is set upon your boughs below;

Not set, because their buds not spring;

Spring not, 'cause world is wintering.

But these were found in the East and South

Where Winter is the clime forgot.--

The dewdrop on the larkspur's mouth

O should it then be quenchèd not?

In starry water-meads they drew

These drops: which be they? stars or dew?

Had she a quince in hand? Yet gaze:

Rather it is the sizing moon.

Lo, linked heavens with milky ways!

That was her larkspur row.--So soon?

Sphered so fast, sweet soul?--We see

Nor fruit, nor flowers, nor Dorothy.

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End of part 2 of 73