Ash-boughs

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Ash-boughs
by Gerard Manley Hopkins

a.

NOT of all my eyes see, wandering on the world,
Is anything a milk to the mind so, so sighs deep
Poetry to it, as a tree whose boughs break in the sky.
Say it is ashboughs: whether on a December day and furled
Fast ór they in clammyish lashtender combs creep
Apart wide and new-nestle at heaven most high.
They touch heaven, tabour on it; how their talons sweep
The smouldering enormous winter welkin! May
Mells blue and snowwhite through them, a fringe and fray
Of greenery: it is old earth’s groping towards the steep
        Heaven whom she childs us by.
 
(Variant from line 7.) b.

They touch, they tabour on it, hover on it[; here, there hurled],
        With talons sweep
The smouldering enormous winter welkin. [Eye,
        But more cheer is when] May
Mells blue with snowwhite through their fringe and fray
Of greenery and old earth gropes for, grasps at steep
        Heaven with it whom she childs things by.

PD-icon.svg This work published before January 1, 1923 is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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