I live my life in growing rings
which move out over the things around me.
Perhaps I'll never complete the last,
but that's what I mean to try.
I'm circling around God, around the ancient tower,
but that's what I mean to try.
I'm circling around God, around the ancient tower,
and I've been circling thousands of years;
and I still don't know: am I a falcon, a storm
or a great song?
- Rainer Maria Rilke, from The Book of Hours (1899-1903)
and I still don't know: am I a falcon, a storm
or a great song?
- Rainer Maria Rilke, from The Book of Hours (1899-1903)
The Windhover
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!
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!
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-vermillion.
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.
- Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1918, subtitled "To Christ Our Lord"
Even if you are not one to believe in a God, the beauty here seems well worth the investment of imagining you could believe in some unifying spirit, if only for a few moments...
Many thanks to Jim Burke for offering the first excerpt from Rilke on his blog, http://jimburke.typepad.com/.
The orality of Hopkins has long captured my fancy, despite its perhaps over-intricacy. If this one's too much, try "Pied Beauty" (nifty text-flow just beneath the print on this site - wait for it!) or "As Kingfishers Catch Fire" (and this link offers you the "Poem in Your Pocket" PDF so you can drag it along...) both of which I memorized long ago and still find solace in trotting out from time to time. Also, both links come from Poets.org, a site that just gets better and better. What a space for solace.
MFB,
L
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