Hopkins: Spring and Fall

Gerard Manley Hopkins' poetry mainly addressed  the glory of God in nature. His poetry mirrors the Romantics in that aspect. Hopkins uses the religious aspect of his poetry to call attention to the mortality of humanity through the decay of nature.

In Spring and Fall, a young girl, Margaret, laments the coming fall except she is too young to express her feelings. Therefore, the speaker questions to Margaret act as her voice for her feelings.

"Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder" (line 1-6).

Margaret identifies with the youthfulness of Spring because like Spring she too is in the dawn of life. She is living in harmony with the world. Margaret is happy and sympathetic with her surroundings. Therefore, when she is faced with the idea that Spring will one day turn to Fall and everything will decay, she does not know how to address the idea of death. The decay of Spring helps her to realize the eventual onset of her and humanity's demise. Margaret is beginning to realize that everything will eventually decay and die. She will fall from her youthful Eden just like Adam and Eve fell from Grace and were thrown out of Eden. Humanity like nature is at the will of God which means the fall is inevitable. Thus, Margaret's laments for Spring actually turn into Margaret mourning for herself (line 15). She is no longer a care-free child. Now Margaret possesses the grief and sorrow of the world, and that will stay with her for the rest of her life.