Skip to content
Linespedia

Binsey Poplars felled 1879

By Gerard Manley Hopkins

Topics: classic

My aspens dear, whose airy cages quelled,     Quelled or quenched in leaves the leaping sun,     All felled, felled, are all felled;     Of a fresh and following folded rank          Not spared, not one          That dandled a sandalled     Shadow that swam or sank     On meadow and river and wind-wandering weed-winding bank.     O if we but knew what we do     When we delve or hew -     Hack and rack the growing green!     Since country is so tender     To touch, her being s slender,     That, like this sleek and seeing ball     But a prick will make no eye at all,     Where we, even where we mean     To mend her we end her,     When we hew or delve:     After-comers cannot guess the beauty been.     Ten or twelve, only ten or twelve     Strokes of havoc nselve     The sweet especial scene,     Rural scene, a rural scene,     Sweet especial rural scene.

AI analysis available. Enable JavaScript to interact.

About this line

"My aspens dear, whose airy cages quelled,..."

This evocative piece by Gerard Manley Hopkins, titled "Binsey Poplars felled 1879", represents a masterful exploration of classic. The lines capture a profound emotional resonance... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

Attribution & Rights

Author:Gerard Manley Hopkins

"My aspens dear, whose airy cages quelled,..." by Gerard Manley Hopkins

For usage rights, copyright concerns, or to report an issue with this content, please visit our Copyright & Report page.

Related lines

"Wild air, world-mothering air,     Nestling me everywhere,     That each eyelash or hair     Girdles; goes home betwixt     The fleeciest, fra"

"I Wake and feel the fell of dark, not day.     What hours, O what black hors we have spent     This night! what sights you, heart, saw; ways yo"

"On ear and ear two noises too old to end     Trench - right, the tide that ramps against the shore;     With a flood or a fall, low lull-off or"

"Glory be to God for dappled things -     For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;     For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim:"

"Here morning in the ploughman's songs is met     Ere yet one footstep shows in all the sky,     And twilight in the east, a doubt as yet,     S"

"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Gerard Manley Hopkins

About Gerard Manley Hopkins

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889) was an English Jesuit poet who invented "sprung rhythm," a new metrical system. His poems—including "The Windhover," "Pied Beauty," and "God's Grandeur"—were published posthumously and are now celebrated for their ecstatic language and innovative prosody.

Full Bibliography
Continue Reading

"Wild air, world-mothering air,     Nestling me eve..."

Weekly Poetic Insight

Join our literary Sanctuary

Get the most inspiring lines, poetic analysis, and secret shayaris delivered to your inbox every Sunday.