dated Jan. 18, 19, 1866. The second, which is a good
deal altered, is apparently of same date as text of No. 2.
Text follows this later version. Published in Miles.
4. WRECK OF THE DEUTSCHLAND. Text from B, title from A
(see description of B on p. 94). In 'The Spirit of Man'
the original first stanza is given from A, and varies;
otherwise B was not much corrected. Another transcript,
now at St. Aloysius' College, Glasgow, was made by
Rev. F. Bacon after A but before the correction of B.
This was collated for me by the Rev. Father Geoffrey Bliss,
S.J., and gave one true reading. Its variants are distin-
guished by G in the notes to the poem.
The labour spent on this great metrical experiment must
have served to establish the poet's prosody and perhaps
his diction: therefore the poem stands logically as well as
chronologically in the front of his book, like a great dragon
folded in the gate to forbid all entrance, and confident in
his strength from past success. This editor advises the
reader to circumvent him and attack him later in the rear;
for he was himself shamefully worsted in a brave frontal
assault, the more easily perhaps because both subject and
treatment were distasteful to him. A good method of
approach is to read stanza 16 aloud to a chance company.
To the metrist and rhythmist the poem will be of interest
from the first, and throughout.
Stanza iv. 1. 7. Father Bliss tells me that the Voel is a
mountain not far from St. Beuno's College in N. Wales,
where the poem was written: and Dr. Henry Bradley that
_moel_ is primarily an adj. meaning _bald_: it becomes
a fem, subst. meaning _bare hill_, and preceded by the
article _y_ becomes _voel_, in modern Welsh spelt _foel_. This
accounts for its being written without initial capital, the
word being used genetically; and the meaning, obscured
by _roped_, is that the well is fed by the trickles of water
within the flanks of the mountains.--Both A and B read
_planks_ for _flanks_; G gives the correction.
St. xi. 5. Two of the required stresses are on _we dream_.
St. xii. 8. _reeve_, see note on Author's Preface, p. 101.
St. xiv. 8. _these_. G has _there_; but the words between
_shock_ and _these_ are probably parenthetical.
St. xvi. 3. Landsmen may not observe the wrongness: see
again No. 17, st. ix, and 39, line 10. I would have cor-
rected this if the euphony had not accidentally forbidden
the simplest correction.
St. xvi. 7. _foam-fleece_ followed by full stop in A and B,
by a comma in G.
St. xix. 3. _hawling_ thus spelt in all three.
St. xxi. 2. G omits _the_.
St. xxvi. 5 and 6. The semicolon is autographic correction in
B; the stop at _Way_ is uncertain in A and B, is a comma
in G.
St. xxix. 3. _night_ (sic).
8. Two of the required stresses are on _Tarpeian_.
St. xxxiv. 8. _shire_. G has _shore_; but _shire_ is doubtless
right; it is the special favoured landscape visited by the
shower.
5. PENMAEN POOL. Early copy in A. Text, title, and punctu-
ation from autograph in B, dated 'Barmouth, Merioneth-
shire. Aug. 1876'. But that autograph writes _leisure_
for _pleasure_ in first line; _skulls_ in stanza 2; and in
stanza 8, _month_ has a capital initial. Several copies exist,
and vary.
St. iii. 2. _Cadair Idris_ is written as a note to _Giant's stool_.
St. viii. 4. Several variants. Two good copies read _dark-
some danksome_; but the early copy in A has _darksome
darksome_, which B returns to.
St. ix. 3. A has _But praise it_, and two good copies _But
honour it_.
6. 'THE SILVER JUBILEE: in honour of the Most Reverend James
first Bishop of Shrewsbury. St. Beuno's, Vale of Clwyd.
1876, I think.' A.--Text and title from autograph in B.
It was published with somebody's sermon on the same
occasion. Another copy in H.
7. 'GOD'S GRANDEUR. Standard rhythm counterpoised.' Two
autographs, Feb. 23, 1877; and March 1877; in A.--
Text is from corrections in B. The second version in A
has _lightning_ for _shining_ in line 2, explained in a letter
of Jan. 4, '83. B returns to original word.
8. 'THE STARLIGHT NIGHT. Feb. 24, '77.' Autograph in A.--
'Standard rhythm opened and counterpointed. March
'77.' A.--Later corrected version 'St. Beuno's, Feb. 77'
in B.--Text follows B. The second version in A was
published in Miles's book 'Poets and Poetry of the Century'.
9. 'SPRING. (Standard rhythm, opening with sprung leadings),
May 1877.' Autograph in A.--Text from corrections in B,
but punctuation from A. Was published in Miles's book
from incomplete correction of A.
10. 'THE LANTERN. (Standard rhythm, with one sprung lead-
ing and one line counterpomted.)' Autograph in A.--
Text, title, and accents in lines 13 and 14, from corrections in
B, where it is called 'companion to No. 26, St. Beuno's '77'.
11. 'WALKING BY THE SEA. Standard rhythm, in parts
sprung and in others counterpomted, Rhyl, May '77.'
A. This version deleted in B, and the revision given in
text written in with new title.--G. M. H. was not pleased
with this sonnet, and wrote the following explanation of it
in a letter '82: '_Rash fresh more_ (it is dreadful to
explain these things in cold blood) means a headlong and
exciting new snatch of singing, resumption by the lark of
his song, which by turns he gives over and takes up again
all day long, and this goes on, the sonnet says, through
all time, without ever losing its first freshness, being
a thing both new and old. _Repair_ means the same thing,
renewal, resumption. The _skein_ and _coil_ are the lark's
song, which from his height gives the impression of some-
thing falling to the earth and not vertically quite but
tricklingly or wavingly, something as a skein of silk ribbed
by having been tightly wound on a narrow card or
a notched holder or as twine or fishing-tackle unwinding
from a _reel_ or _winch_ or as pearls strung on a horsehair:
the laps or folds are the notes or short measures and bars
of them. The same is called a _score_ in the musical sense
of score and this score is "writ upon a liquid sky
trembling to welcome it", only not horizontally. The lark
in wild glee _races the reel round_, paying or dealing out
and down the turns of the skein or _coil_ right to the earth
_floor_, the ground, where it lies in a heap, as it were, or
rather is all wound off on to another winch, reel, bobbin
or spool in Fancy's eye, by the moment the bird touches
earth and so is ready for a fresh unwinding at the next
flight. _Crisp_ means almost _crisped_, namely with notes.'
12 'THE WINDHOVER. (Falling paeonic rhythm, sprung and
outriding.)' Two contemporary autographs in A.--Text
and dedication from corrected B, dated St. Beuno's, May
30, 1877. In a letter June 22, '79: 'I shall shortly send
you an amended copy of The Windhover: the amendment
only touches a single line, I think, but as that is the best
thing I ever wrote I should like you to have it in its
best form.'
13 'PIED BEAUTY. Curtal Sonnet: sprung paeonic rhythm.
St. Beuno's, Tremeirchion. Summer '77.' Autograph in
A.--B agrees.
14 'HURRAHING IN HARVEST: Sonnet (sprung and outriding
rhythm. Take notice that the outriding feet are not to be
confused with dactyls or paeons, though sometimes the
line might be scanned either way. The strong syllable in
an outriding foot has always a great stress and after the
outrider follows a short pause. The paeon is easier and
more flowing). Vale of Clwyd, Sept. 1, 1877.' Auto-
graph in A. Text is from corrected B, punctuation of
original A. In a letter '78 he wrote: 'The Hurrahing
sonnet was the outcome of half an hour of extreme en-
thusiasm as I walked home alone one day from fishing in
the Elwy.' A also notes 'no counterpoint'.
15 'THE CAGED SKYLARK. (Falling paeonic rhythm, sprung
and outriding.)' Autograph in A. Text from corrected
B which dates St. Beuno's, 1877. In line 13 B writes
_úncúmberèd_.
16. 'IN THE VALLEY OF THE ELWY. (Standard rhythm, sprung
and counterpointed.)' Autograph in A. Text is from
corrected B, which dates as contemporary with No. 15,
adding 'for the companion to this see No.' 35.
17. THE LOSS OF THE EURYDICE. A contemporary copy in A
has this note: 'Written in sprung rhythm, the third line
has 3 beats, the rest 4. The scanning runs on without
break to the end of the stanza, so that each stanza is
rather one long line rhymed in passage than four lines
with rhymes at the ends.'--B has an autograph of the
poem as it came to be corrected ('83 or after), without
the above note and dated 'Mount St. Mary, Derbyshire,
Apr. '78'.--Text follows B.--The injurious rhymes are
partly explained in the old note.
St. 9. _Shorten sail_. The seamanship at fault: but this ex-
pression may be glossed by supposing the boatswain to
have sounded that call on his whistle.
St. 12. _Cheer's death_, i.e. despair.
St, 14. _It is even seen_. In a letter May 30, '78, he ex-
plains: 'You mistake the sense of this as I feared it would
be mistaken. I believed Hare to be a brave and con-
scientious man, what I say is that _even_ those who seem
unconscientious will act the right part at a great push. . . .
About _mortholes_ I wince a little.'
St. 26. _A starlight-wender_, i.e. The island was so Marian
that the folk supposed the Milky Way was a fingerpost to
guide pilgrims to the shrine of the Virgin at Walsingham.
_And one_, that is Duns Scotus the champion of the Im-
maculate Conception. See Sonnet No. 20.
St. 27. _Well wept_. Grammar is as in 'Well hit! well run!'
&c. The meaning 'You do well to weep'.
St. 28. _O Hero savest_. Omission of relative pronoun at its
worst. = _O Hero that savest_. The prayer is in a mourner's
mouth, who prays that Christ will have saved her hero,
and in stanza 29 the grammar triumphs.
18. 'THE MAY MAGNIFICAT. (Sprung rhythm, four stresses
in each line of the first couplet, three in each of the second.
Stonyhurst, May '78.') Autograph in A.--Text from
later autograph in B. He wrote to me: 'A Maypiece in
which I see little good but the freedom of the rhythm.'
In penult stanza _cuckoo-call_ has its hyphen deleted in B,
leaving the words separate.
19. 'BINSEY POPLARS, felled 1879. Oxford, March 1879.' Auto-
graph in A. Text from B, which alters four places.
l. 8 _weed-winding_: an early draft has _weed-wounden_.
20. 'DUNS SCOTUS'S OXFORD. Oxford, March 1879.' Auto-
graph in A. Copy in B agrees but dates 1878.
21. 'HENRY PURCELL. (Alexandrine: six stresses to the line.
Oxford, April 1879.)' Autograph in A with argument as
printed. Copy in B is uncorrected except that it adds the
word _fresh_ in last line.
'"Have fair fallen." _Have_ is the sing, imperative (or
optative if you like) of the past, a thing possible and
actual both in logic and grammar, but naturally a rare
one. As in the 2nd pers. we say "Have done" or in mak-
ing appointments "Have had your dinner beforehand",
so one can say in the 3rd pers. not only "Fair fall" of
what is present or future but also "Have fair fallen"
of what is past. The same thought (which plays a great
part in my own mind and action) is more clearly expressed
in the last stanza but one of the _Eurydice_, where you
remarked it.' Letter to R. B., Feb. 3, '83.
'The sestet of the Purcell sonnet is not so clearly worked
out as I could wish. The thought is that as the seabird
opening his wings with a whiff of wind in your face means
the whirr of the motion, but also unaware gives you
a whiff of knowledge about his plumage, the marking of
which stamps his species, that he does not mean, so
Purcell, seemingly intent only on the thought or feeling he
is to express or call out, incidentally lets you remark the
individualising marks of his own genius.
'_Sake_ is a word I find it convenient to use ... it is the
_sake_ of "for the sake of ", _forsake_, _namesake_, _keepsake_.
I mean by it the being a thing has outside itself, as a voice
by its echo, a face by its reflection, a body by its shadow,
a man by his name, fame, or memory, _and also_ that in
the thing by virtue of which especially it has this being
abroad, and that is something distinctive, marked, speci-
fically or individually speaking, as for a voice and echo
clearness; for a reflected image light, brightness; for
a shadow-casting body bulk; for a man genius, great
achievements, amiability, and so on. In this case it is, as
the sonnet says, distinctive quality in genius. ... By
_moonmarks_ I mean crescent-shaped markings on the quill-
feathers, either in the colouring of the feather or made by
the overlapping of one on another.' Letter to R. B.,
May 26, '79.
22. 'PEACE: Oxford, 1879.' Autograph in B, where a comma
after _daunting_ is due to following a deletion. _To own
my heart_ = _to my own heart_. _Reaving Peace_, i.e. when
he reaves or takes Peace away, as No. 35, l. 12. An early
draft dated Oct. 2, '79, has _taking_ for _reaving_.
23. 'THE BUGLER'S FIRST COMMUNION. (Sprung rhythm,
overrove, an outride between the 3rd and 4th foot of the
4th line in each stanza.) Oxford, July 27,(?) 1879.' A.--
My copy of this in B shows three emendations. First
draft exists in H. Text is A with the corrections from B.
At nine lines from end, _Though this_, A has _Now this_,
and _Now_ is deliberately preferred in H.--B has some un-
corrected miscopyings of A. _O for, now, charms of_ A is
already a correction in H. I should like a comma at end
of first line of 5th stanza and an interjection-mark at
end of that stanza.
24. 'MORNING MIDDAY AND EVENING SACRIFICE. Oxford,
Aug. '79.' Autograph in A. The first stanza reproduced
after p. 70. Copied by me into B, where it received cor-
rection. Text follows B except in lines 19 and 20, where
the correction reads _What Death half lifts the latch of,
What hell hopes soon the snatch of_. And punctuation is
not all followed: original has comma after the second _this_
in lines 5 and 6. On June 30, '86, G. M. H. wrote to
Canon Dixon, who wished to print the first stanza alone
in some anthology, and made _ad hoc_ alterations which
I do not follow. The original 17th line was _Silk-ashed
but core not cooling_, and was altered because of its
obscurity. 'I meant (he wrote) to compare grey hairs to
the flakes of silky ash which may be seen round wood
embers . . . and covering a core of heat. . . .' _Your offer-
ing, with despatch, of_ is said like 'your ticket', 'your
reasons', 'your money or your life . . .' It is: 'Come, your
offer of all this (the matured mind), and without delay
either!'
25. 'ANDROMEDA. Oxford, Aug. 12, '79.' A--which B cor-
rects in two places only. Text rejects the first, in line 4
_dragon_ for _dragon's_: but follows B in line 10, where A
had _Air, pillowy air_. There is no comma at _barebill_ in
any MS., but a gap and sort of caesural mark in A. In
a letter Aug. 14, '79, G. M. H. writes: 'I enclose a sonnet
on which I invite minute criticism. I endeavoured in it at
a more Miltonic plainness and severity than I have any-
where else. I cannot say it has turned out severe, still
less plain, but it seems almost free from quaintness and in
aiming at one excellence I may have hit another.'
26. 'THE CANDLE INDOORS. (Common rhythm, counter-
pointed.) Oxford, '79.' A. Text takes corrections of
B, which adds 'companion to No.' 10. A has in line 2
_With a yellowy_, and 5 _At that_.
27. 'THE HANDSOME HEART. (Common rhythm counter-
pointed.) Oxford, '79.' A1.--In Aug. of the same year
he wrote that he was surprised at my liking it, and in
deference to my criticism sent a revise, A2.--Subsequently
he recast the sonnet mostly in the longer 6-stress lines,
and wrote that into B.--In that final version the charm
and freshness have disappeared: and his emendation in
evading the clash of _ply_ and _reply_ is awkward; also the
fourteen lines now contain seven _whats_. I have therefore
taken A1 for the text, and have ventured, in line 8, to
restore _how to_, in the place of _what_, from the original
version which exists in H. In 'The Spirit of Man' I gave
a mixture of A1 and A2. In line 5 the word _soul_ is in
H and A1: but A2 and B have _heart_. _Father_ in second
line was the Rev. Father Gerard himself. He tells the
whole story in a letter to me.
28. 'AT A WEDDING. (Sprung rhythm.) Bedford, Lancashire,
Oct. 21, '79.' A. Autograph uncorrected in B, but title
changed to that in text.
29. 'FELIX RANDAL. (Sonnet: sprung and outriding rhythm;
six-foot lines.) Liverpool, Apr. 28, '80.' A. Text from
A with the two corrections of B. The comma in line 5
after _impatient_ is omitted in copy in B.
30. 'BROTHERS. (Sprung rhythm; three feet to the line; lines
free-ended and not overrove; and reversed or counter-
pointed rhythm allowed in the first foot.) Hampstead,
Aug. 1880.' Five various drafts exist. A1 and A2 both of
Aug. '80. B was copied by me from A1, and author's
emendations of it overlook those in A2. Text therefore is
from A 2 except that the first seven lines, being rewritten
in margin afresh (and confirmed in letter of Ap. '81 to
Canon Dixon), as also corrections in lines 15-18, these are
taken. But the B corrections of lines 22, 23, almost
certainly imply forgetfulness of A^. In last line B has
correction _Dearly thou canst be kind_; but the intention
of _I'll cry_ was original, and has four MSS. in its favour.
31. 'SPRING AND FALL. (Sprung rhythm.) Lydiate, Lan-
cashire, Sept. 7, 1880.' A. Text and title from B,
which corrects four lines, and misdates '81. There is also
a copy in D, Jan. '81, and see again Apr. 6, '81. In line 2
the last word is _unleafing_ in most of the MSS. An
attempt to amend the second rhyme was unsuccessful.
32. 'SPELT FROM SIBYL'S LEAVES. (Sonnet: sprung rhythm:
a rest of one stress in the first line.)' Autograph in A--
another later in B, which is taken for text. Date unre-
corded, lines 5, 6, _astray_ thus divided to show the
rhyme.--6. _throughther_, an adj., now confined to dialect.
It is the speech form of _through-other_, in which shape it
eludes pursuit in the Oxford dictionary. Dr. Murray
compares Ger. _durch einander_. Mr. Craigie tells me that
the classical quotation for it is from Burns's 'Halloween',
st. 5, _They roar an cry a' throughther_.--line 8. _With_,
i.e. I suppose, _with your warning that_, &c.: the heart
is speaking. 9. _beak-leaved_ is not hyphened in MS.--
11. _part, pen, pack_, imperatives of the verbs, in the
sense of sorting 'the sheep from the goats'.--12. A has
_wrong right_, but the correction to _right wrong_ in B is
intentional. 14.--_sheathe-_ in both MSS., but I can only
make sense of _sheath-_, i.e. 'sheathless and shelterless'.
The accents in this poem are a selection from A and B.
33. 'INVERSNAID. Sept. 28, 1881.' Autograph in H. I have
found no other trace of this poem.
34. _As kingfishers_. Text from undated autograph in H, a draft
with corrections and variants. In lines 3 and 4 _hung_ and
_to fling out broad_ are corrections in same later pencilling
as line 5, which occurs only thus with them. In sestet
the first three lines have alternatives of regular rhythm,
thus:
Then I say more: the just man justices;
Keeps grace and that keeps all his goings graces;
In God's eye acts, &c.
Of these lines, in 9 and 10 the version given in text is
later than the regular lines just quoted, and probably pre-
ferred: in l. 11 the alternatives apparently of same date.
35. 'RIBBLESDALE. Stonyhurst, 1882.' Autograph in A. Text
from later autograph in B, which adds 'companion to
No. 10' (= 16). There is a third autograph in D, June
'83 with different punctuation which gives the comma
between _to_ and _with_ in line 3. The dash after _man_ is
from A and D, both of which quote 'Nam expectatio
creaturae ', &c. from Romans viii. 19. In the letter to
R. W. D. he writes: '_Louched_ is a coinage of mine, and is
to mean much the same as slouched, slouching, and I mean
_throng_ for an adjective as we use it in Lancashire'.
But _louch_ has ample authority, see the 'English Dialect
Dictionary'.
36. 'THE LEADEN ECHO AND THE GOLDEN ECHO. Stony-
hurst, Oct. 13, '82.' Autograph in A. Copy of this
with autograph corrections dated Hampstead '81 (_sic_) in
B.--Text takes all B's corrections, but respects punctuation
of A, except that I have added the comma after _God_ in
last line of p. 56. For the drama of Winefred, see among
posthumous fragments, No. 58. In Nov. 1882 he wrote
to me: 'I am somewhat dismayed about that piece and
have laid it aside for a while. I cannot satisfy myself
about the first line. You must know that words like
_charm_ and _enchantment_ will not do: the thought is of
beauty as of something that can be physically kept and
lost and by physical things only, like keys; then the
things must come from the _mundus muliebris_; and
thirdly they must not be markedly oldfashioned. You
will sec that this limits the choice of words very much
indeed. However I shall make some changes. _Back_ is
not pretty, but it gives that feeling of physical constraint
which I want.' And in Oct. '86 to R. W. D., 'I never did
anything more musical'.
37. 'MARY MOTHER OF DIVINE GRACE COMPARED TO THE
AIR WE BREATHE. Stonyhurst, May '83.' Autograph
in A.--Text and title from later autograph in B. Taken
by Dean Beeching into 'A Book of Christmas Verse' 1895
and thence, incorrectly, by Orby Shipley in 'Carmina
Mariana'. Stated in a letter to R. W. D. June 25, '83,
to have been written to 'hang up among the verse com-
positions in the tongues. ... I did a piece in the same
metre as _Blue in the mists all day_.' Note Chaucer's
account of the physical properties of the air, 'House of
Fame', ii. 256, seq.
38. 'To WHAT SERVES MORTAL BEAUTY? (Common rhythm
highly stressed: sonnet.) Aug. 23, '85.' Autograph in
A.--Another autograph in B with a few variants from
which A was chosen, the deletion of alternatives incom-
plete. Thirdly a copy sent to R. W. D., apparently later
than A, but with errors of copy. The text given is guided
by this version in D, and _needs_ in line 9 is substituted
there for the _once_ in A and B, probably because of _once_
in line 6.--Original draft exists in H, on same page with
39 and 40. The following is his signature at this date:
Your affectionate friend
Gerard M. Hopkins S.J.
May 29 1885
Transcriber's note: This signature and date is displayed as a
handwritten image in the original.
39. SOLDIER. 'Clongower, Aug. 1885.' Autograph in H,
with a few corrections which I have taken for lines 6 and
7, of which the first draft runs:
It fancies; it deems; dears the artist after his art;
So feigns it finds as, &c.
The MS. marks the caesural place in ten of the lines
in line 2, between _Both_ and _these_. l 3, at the full stop.
l. 6, _fancies_, _feigns_, _deems_, take three stresses. l. 11,
after _man_. In line 7 I have added a comma at _smart_.
In l. 10 I have substituted _handle_ for _reave_ of MS.: see
note on _reave_, p. 101; and in l. 13, have hyphened _God
made flesh_. No title in MS.
40. CARRION COMFORT. Autograph in H, in three versions.
1st, deleted draft. 2nd, a complete version, both on same
page with 38 and 39. 3rd, with 41 on another sheet,
final (?) revision carried only to end of 1. 12 (two detached
lines on reverse). Text is this last with last two lines
from the 2nd version. Date must be 1885, and this is
probably the sonnet 'written in blood', of which he wrote
in May of that year.--I have added the title and the
hyphen in _heaven-handling_.
41. _No worst_. Autograph in H, on same page as third draft of
40. One undated draft with corrections embodied in the
text here.--l. 5, at end are some marks which look like
a hyphen and a comma: no title.