Monday, June 27, 2011
Gerard Hopkins: Spring and Fall
In the beginning of the poem he talks about a girl who is "grieving" over the leaves falling. This poem sounds like a grown up teaching an innocent child of how things may come and go. Generally when people grieve it's over something like a person who has died, but she is so innocent she is able to grieve over leaves, which she seems to believe is dying. He explains to the girl that "As the heart grows older, It will come to such sights colder," which i believe he is telling her that, as she grows up, she will experience much more things such as true death, and other cruel things which she doesn't quite understand just yet. As the leaves are falling, they symbolize death. Leaves are always falling, and people are always dying. Children begin to realize death more and more when they grow up, and this child will one day realize that leaves aren't as important than people dying, and she will eventually no longer "spare a sigh" for the leaves.
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I agree that the girl is grieving over the leaves that are falling. I also think that she is thinking about someone who has died. I also agree with you that the author stated that as she gets older she will understand more fully the meaning of the death.
ReplyDeleteMarie,
ReplyDeleteGood comments on Hopkins's poem, with some good attention to the meaning of the passages you quote. Although your post is quite short, you do raise some good issues in it.
I interpreted the line about coming "to such sights colder", a little differently. I thought it meant that she would come to understand death as a natural part of life, and it would not affect her as much. She would learn to look forward to spring, and rebirth.
ReplyDeleteI like the connection you drew between the leaves and death; it is in fact a continual process whether we realize it or not. I think it is also important that she was crying about the leaves even though she had yet to realize why.
ReplyDelete