William Bouguereau (1825-1905)L'innocence [Innocence]
The May MagnificatGerard Manley Hopkins
- May is Mary's month, and I
Muse at that and wonder why:- Her feasts follow reason,
Dated due to season --- Candlemas, Lady Day;
But the Lady Month, May,- Why fasten that upon her,
With a feasting in her honour- Is it only its being brighter
Than the most are must delight her?- Is it opportunest
And flowers finds soonest?- Ask of her, the mighty mother;
Her reply puts this other- Question: What is Spring? --
Growth in everything --- Flesh and fleece, fur and feather
Grass and green world all together;- Star-eyed strawberry breasted
Throstle above her nested- Cluster of bugle blue eggs thin
Forms and warms the life within;- And bird and blossom swell
In sod or sheath or shell.- All things rising, all things sizing
Mary sees, sympathising- With that world of good
Nature's motherhood.- Their magnifying of each its kind
With delight calls to mind- How she did in her stored
Magnify the Lord- Well but there was more than this:
Spring's universal bliss- Much, had much to say
To offering Mary May.- When drop-of-blood-and-foam-dapple
Bloom lights the orchard-apple- And thicket and thorp are merry
With silver-surféd cherry- And azuring-over greybell makes
Wood banks and brakes wash wet like lakes- And magic cuckoo call
Caps, clears, and clinches all --- This ecstasy all through mothering earth
Tells Mary her mirth till Christ's birth- To remember and exultation
In God who was her salvation.
