Poem: Pied Beauty

For Rose-Moles All in Stipple Upon Trout That Swim: Praise Him!

Pied Beauty is by the Jesuit Priest and poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889). Although written in 1877, it remained unpublished until it's inclusion in the posthumous collection: Poems (1918). It is known as a curtal sonnet, a poetic form of his own invention. Pied Beauty is included in the Poetry for All Seasons Appendix of the Divine Office (1974).


Read by Michael Graves

PIED BEAUTY by Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1918 (Public Domain)

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;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
     Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough;
          And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
     Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
          With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
               Praise him.

Poem: That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the Comfort of the Resurrection

Nature's Bonfire Burns On

That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the Comfort of the Resurrection is by the Jesuit Priest and poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889). It was first published in the posthumous collection: Poems (1918) and is included in the Poetry for All Seasons Appendix of the Divine Office (1974). Heraclitus (c.535- c.475 BC) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher who taught that fire is the primordial element from which all else comes into being and ultimately, passes away. For an interesting commentary, check out the article and podcast - Poetry and Judgment Day 3: Gerard Manley Hopkins “That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the comfort of the Resurrection”.


Reading

THAT NATURE IS A HERACLITEAN FIRE AND OF THE COMFORT OF THE RESURRECTION by Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1918 (Public Domain)

Cloud-puffball, torn tufts, tossed pillows | flaunt forth, then chevy on an air-
Built thoroughfare: heaven-roysterers, in gay-gangs | they throng; they
       glitter in marches.
Down roughcast, down dazzling whitewash, | wherever an elm arches,
Shivelights and shadowtackle ín long | lashes lace, lance, and pair.
Delightfully the bright wind boisterous | ropes, wrestles, beats earth bare
Of yestertempest's creases; | in pool and rut peel parches
Squandering ooze to squeezed | dough, crust, dust; stanches, starches
Squadroned masks and manmarks | treadmire toil there
Footfretted in it. Million-fuelèd, | nature's bonfire burns on.
But quench her bonniest, dearest | to her, her clearest-selvèd spark
Man, how fast his firedint, | his mark on mind, is gone!
Both are in an unfathomable, all is in an enormous dark
Drowned. O pity and indig | nation! Manshape, that shone
Sheer off, disseveral, a star, | death blots black out; nor mark
                         Is any of him at all so stark
But vastness blurs and time | beats level. Enough! the Resurrection,
A heart's-clarion! Away grief's gasping, | joyless days, dejection.
                         Across my foundering deck shone
A beacon, an eternal beam. | Flesh fade, and mortal trash
Fall to the residuary worm; | world's wildfire, leave but ash:
                         In a flash, at a trumpet crash,
I am all at once what Christ is, | since he was what I am, and
This Jack, joke, poor potsherd, | patch, matchwood, immortal diamond,
                         Is immortal diamond.

Poem: O Deus Ego Amo Te (O God, I Love Thee)

Painting by Paul Rubens - Courtesy of Wikipedia

O Deus Ego Amo Te (O God, I Love Thee) is a translation by Fr. Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J. (1844-1889) of O Deus Ego Amo Te, attributed to the early Jesuit missionary, St. Francis Xavier (1506-1552). It was probably written sometime in the 1540's during his time in India and was likely composed as a sonnet in Spanish or Portuguese, then later translated into Latin, either by Xavier himself and/or by others, for there are several Latin versions. O Deus Ego Amo Te (O God, I Love Thee) is included in the Poetry Appendix of the Liturgy of the Hours (1975).

O DEUS EGO AMO TE by Gerard Manley Hopkins (Public Domain)

O God, I love thee, I love thee-
Not out of hope of heaven for me
Nor fearing not to love and be
     In the everlasting burning.
Thou, thou, my Jesus, after me
     Didst reach thine arms out dying,
For my sake sufferedst nails, and lance,
Mocked and marred countenance,
     Sorrows passing number,
     Sweat and care and cumber,
Yea and death, and this for me,
     And thou couldst see me sinning:
Then I, why should not I love thee,
Jesu, so much in love with me?
Not for heaven's sake; not to be
Out of hell by loving thee;
Not for any gains I see;
But just the way that thou didst me
I do love and I will love thee:
What must I love thee, Lord, for then?
For being my king and God. Amen.


Original Latin hymn sung by the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles

O DEUS, EGO AMO TE - Anonymous 18th Century Hymn

O Deus, ego amo te,
Nec amo te ut salves me,
Nec quod qui te non diligent,
Æterno igne pereunt.

Ex cruces lingo germinat,
Qui pectus amor occupant,
Ex pansis unde brachiis,
Ad te amandum arripes. Amen.


O DEUS, EGO AMO TE by St. Francis Xavier

O Deus, ego amo te,
Nec amo te, ut salves me,
Aut, quia non amantes te
Æterno punis igne.

Tu, tu, mi Jesu, totum me
Amplexus es in cruce;
Tuliste clavos, lanceam,
Multamque ignominiam,

Innumeros dolores,
Sudores, et angores,
Et mortem, et hæc propter me,
Ac pro me peccatore.

Cur igitur non amem te,
O Jesu amantissime,
Non, ut in cœlo salves me,
Aut ne æternum damnes me,

Nec præmii ullius spe;
Sed sicut tu amasti me?
Sic amo et amabo te,
Solum quia Rex meus es,
Et solum, quia Deus es.

Poem: Thou Art Indeed Just, Lord

Oh Thou Lord of Life, Send My Roots Rain

Thou Art Indeed Just, Lord is a sonnet by Fr. Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J. (1844–1889). It draws upon the prophet Jeremiah's petition of complaint to God found in Jeremiah 12:1-4.  Thou Art Indeed Just, Lord was first published in the posthumous collection: Poems (1918). It is included in the Poetry Appendix of the Liturgy of the Hours (1975).


Reading

THOU ART INDEED JUST, LORD by Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1918 (Public Domain)

Justus quidem tu es, Domine, si disputem tecum: verumtamen justa loquar ad te: Quare via impiorum prosperatur? etc. (Jeremiah 12:1)

Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend
With thee; but, sir, so what I plead is just.
Why do sinners’ ways prosper? and why must
Disappointment all I endeavour end?

     Wert thou my enemy, O thou my friend,
How wouldst thou worse, I wonder, than thou dost
Defeat, thwart me? Oh, the sots and thralls of lust
Do in spare hours more thrive than I that spend,
Sir, life upon thy cause. See, banks and brakes
Now leavèd how thick! lacèd they are again
With fretty chervil, look, and fresh wind shakes
Them; birds build—but not I build; no, but strain,
Time’s eunuch, and not breed one work that wakes.
Mine, O thou lord of life, send my roots rain.

Poem: My Own Heart Let Me More Have Pity On

Let Me Live To My Sad Self Hereafter Kind

My Own Heart Let Me More Have Pity On is a sonnet by Fr. Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J. (1844–1889). Composed sometime during the last five years of his life; it was an especially difficult period for him in which he struggled with his new work assignment, failing health, and bouts of depression. My Own Heart Let Me More Have Pity On was first published in the posthumous collection: Poems (1918). It is included in the Poetry Appendix of the Liturgy of the Hours (1975).

MY OWN HEART LET ME HAVE MORE PITY ON by Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1918 (Public Domain)

My own heart let me have more have pity on; let
Me live to my sad self hereafter kind,
Charitable; not live this tormented mind
With this tormented mind tormenting yet.
     I cast for comfort I can no more get
By groping round my comfortless, than blind
Eyes in their dark can day or thirst can find
Thirst ’s all-in-all in all a world of wet.

Soul, self; come, poor Jackself, I do advise
You, jaded, let be; call off thoughts awhile
Elsewhere; leave comfort root-room; let joy size
At God knows when to God knows what; whose smile
’s not wrung, see you; unforeseen times rather—as skies

Betweenpie mountains—lights a lovely mile.

Poem: God's Grandeur

The World is Charged with the Grandeur of God

God's Grandeur is a sonnet by Fr. Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J. (1844–1889). A convert, in 1866 he was received into the Catholic Church by Cardinal John Henry Newman and eventually became a Jesuit priest. God's Grandeur was first published in the posthumous collection: Poems (1918). It is probably his most well known poem and is included in the Poetry Appendix of the Liturgy of the Hours (1975).


Reading and commentary by Stanley Kunitz, Reading begins at 2:00 min.

GOD'S GRANDEUR by Gerard Manley Hopkins (Public Domain)

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
     It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
     It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
     And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
     And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
     There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
     Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
     World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

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Poem: The Windhover

How He Rung Upon The Rein Of A Wimpling Wing In His Ecstasy 

The Windhover is a sonnet by the English poet and Jesuit Priest, Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889). It was composed on May 30, 1877, but was not published until 1918. Windhover is another name for the Common Kestrel, a type of Falcon. It is used here as a metaphor for Christ. Hopkins considered it his best work. The Windhover is included in the Religious Poetry Appendix for Lent and Easter of the Divine Office (1974).


Reading

THE WINDHOVER by Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1877 (Public Domain)

To Christ, Our Lord

I caught this morning morning's minion, king-
          dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon,
                    in his riding
          Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding

High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
          As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the
                    hurl and gliding Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird, – the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!

Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
          Buckle! And the fire that breaks from thee then, a
                    billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!

          No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
          Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermilion.

The Word of God Proceeding Forth / Verbum Supernum Prodiens

The Cross, Their Ransom Dearly Paid

The Word of God Proceeding Forth is an english translation of the original latin hymn written in 1264: Verbum Supernum (see 2nd video) by St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274). In the Roman Breviary it is used as the hymn at Lauds in the Office for the Feast of Corpus Christi. The final two stanzas are often sung at Benediction as the hymn: O Salutaris Hostia (O Saving Victim). In 2008, the Catholic recording artist Tom Booth added a praise chorus to the english text for his song: O Salutaris Hostia (O Saving Lamb). The version of The Word of God Proceeding Forth used in the Liturgy of the Hours is a combination of the work of three writers: John Mason Neale (1818-1866), Fr. Edward Caswall (1814-1878), and Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889). It is set to the 1790 tune Rockingham, attributed to Ed­ward Mill­er (1735-1807). In the Liturgy of the Hours it is used during Holy Week.

Tune: Rockingham

THE HEAVENLY WORD PROCEEDING FORTH by John Mason Neale, Edward Caswall, and others. (Public Domain)

1. The heavenly Word proceeding forth,
yet not leaving the Father's side,
went forth upon His work on earth
and reached at length life's eventide.

2. By false disciple to be given
to foemen for His Blood athirst,
Himself, the living Bread from heaven,
He gave to His disciples first.

3. To them He gave, in twofold kind,
His very Flesh, His very Blood:
of twofold substance man is made,
and He of man would be the Food.

4. By birth our fellowman was He,
our Food while seated at the board;
He died, our ransomer to be;
He ever reigns, our great reward.

5. O saving Victim, opening wide
the gate of heaven to all below:
our foes press on from every side;
Thine aid supply, Thy strength bestow.

6. To Thy great Name be endless praise,
immortal Godhead, One in Three!
O grant us endless length of days
in our true native land with Thee. Amen.

Gregorian Chant

VERBUM SUPERNUM PRODIENS by St. Thomas Aquinas, 1264

1. Verbum supernum prodiens,
nec Patris linquens dexteram,
ad opus suum exiens,
venit ad vitae vesperam.

2. In mortem a discipulo
suis tradendus aemulis,
prius in vitae ferculo
se tradidit discipulis.

3. Quibus sub bina specie
carnem dedit et sanguinem;
ut duplicis substantiae
totum cibaret hominem.

4. Se nascens dedit socium,
convescens in edulium,
se moriens in pretium,
se regnans dat in praemium.

5. O salutaris hostia,
quae caeli pandis ostium,
bella premunt hostilia;
da robur, fer auxilium.

6. Uni trinoque Domino
sit sempiterna gloria:
qui vitam sine termino
nobis donet in patria. Amen.