Hurrahing in Harvest

Summer ends now; now, barbarous in beauty, the stooks arise
  Around; up above, what wind-walks! what lovely behaviour
  Of silk-sack clouds! has wilder, wilful-wavier
Meal-drift moulded ever and melted across skies?


I walk, I lift up, I lift up heart, eyes,
  Down all that glory in the heavens to glean our Saviour;
  And, eyes, heart, what looks, what lips yet gave you a
Rapturous love's greeting of realer, of rounder replies?


And the azurous hung hills are his world-wielding shoulder
  Majestic — as a stallion stalwart, very-violet-sweet! —
These things, these things were here and but the beholder
  Wanting; which two when they once meet,
The heart rears wings bold and bolder
  And hurls for him, O half hurls earth for him off under his feet.


By Gerard Manley Hopkins


Explication:


This is a Petrarchan Sonnet written by Gerard Hopkins and it relates to my theme of colour because colour is the primary motif throughout the poem. This is evident in the lines "And the azurous hung hills are his world-wielding shoulder" and "very-violet-sweet". I especially liked how the author used 'azurous' as an adjective because I feel it gives the poem a deeper meaning than if the author had just used 'blue'. I found many alliterations in this poem: line 1 - barbarious in beauty, line 2 - what wind walks, line 3 - silk-sack, line 3 - wilder wilful-wavier, line 9 - world-wielding, line 10 - stallion stalwart, line 13 - bold and bolder. As well as many other poetic devices, there were many cases of repetition (lines 5 and 11). I enjoyed this poem because of how intricate every part is. It is clear this took a lot of work from a very skilled poet.