"Spring
and Fall" by Gerard M. Hopkins
Purpose:
For this exercise, you will read through a poem one line
at a time. You will not be able to move to the next line until
you click on the underlined word. The reason you must read the
poem in such a piecemeal way is that it will force you to slow
down as you read. Poetry is about tasting words, not gulping
them. The purpose of this exercise is a slow, careful reading
of a poem.
Directions:
You will read through an online version of Gerard Manley Hopkins'
poem "Spring and Fall." (Click
here to see the Gerard M. Hopkins' Homepage). You should
already have read the Close Reading
Exercise before beginning. If you have not read it, do so now.
As you read, you have two jobs
to do for your assignment. They require scratch-paper:
(1) Paraphrase
each line of the poem. Say what it says using different words.
DON'T SUMMARIZE MULTIPLE LINES INTO SINGLE LINES! The
point isn't brevity. The point is precision.
(2) Answer
one of those questions in the Close Reading Exercise for each
line. It doesn't matter which one, as long as you answer one
of them for every line to help you unpack the poetry.
The poem we will use is found
in The Later Poetic Manuscripts of Gerard Manley Hopkins
in Facsimile, ed. Norman H. MacKenzie (New York and London:
Garland, 1991): p. 217. It was first published in 1918.
Click here to START
POEM.