Cheery Beggar
Beyond Mágdalen and by the Bridge, on a place called there the Plain,
In Summer, in a burst of summertime
Following falls and falls of rain,
When the air was sweet-and-sour of the flown fineflower of
Those goldnails and their gaylinks that hang along a lime;
The motion of that man’s heart is fine
Whom want could not make píne, píne
That struggling should not sear him, a gift should cheer him
Like that poor pocket of pence, poor pence of mine.
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Gerard Manley Hopkins was born in Stratford, England in 1844. He was a Jesuit priest and a poet. During his lifetime, most of his poems were rejected for publication. After a difficult life filled with depression and what he considered personal failures, Hopkins died of Typhoid fever in 1889. He was 44 years old. However, on his deathbed his depression seemed to have left him, his last words being, “"I am so happy, I am so happy. I loved my life." He is thought of as one the Victorian era's greatest poets. He is famous for his use of sprung rhythm, at a time when metered rhythm was the norm.
