Spring

Quiz — "Spring" by Gerard Manley Hopkins

1. Recall – Form: What type of sonnet is "Spring," and what are the names of its two structural sections?

1. Recall – Speaker & Tone: How does the tone of the poem shift between its two sections, and what emotion characterizes each?

1. Recall – Key Image: What natural object in the octave is described as resembling tiny pieces of sky, and what does the bird's song do to the surrounding air, according to Hopkins?

1. Recall – Key Image: What tree's leaves are depicted as so reflective and glassy that they appear to mirror the sky rushing down toward them?

1. Comprehension – Eden Imagery: What does Hopkins suggest that the beauty of spring represents in theological terms, and how does this connect to the poem's historical context in Victorian England?

1. Comprehension – Symbols: Hopkins uses the word "juice" to describe the energy flowing through all living things in spring. Why is this word choice significant in terms of the poem's treatment of holiness and the natural world?

1. Comprehension – The Sestet's Argument: To whom does Hopkins address the sestet, and what does he urgently ask of this figure regarding children?

1. Analysis – Structural Shift: How does the movement from the octave to the sestet reflect a change in Hopkins's purpose — that is, what does the poem move from and toward?

1. Analysis – Symbolism of the Peartree: Beyond its visual beauty, what symbolic resonance might the peartree carry within the poem's theological framework, and what moment in Christian tradition does it subtly evoke?

1. Analysis – Children and Spring: In what ways does Hopkins equate children with the season of spring itself? What do the two share, and what shared threat does the poem imply?

Answer Key

1. "Spring" is a Petrarchan (Italian) sonnet, divided into an octave (the first eight lines) and a sestet (the final six lines).

1. The octave is ecstatic and joyful — Hopkins is overwhelmed by the beauty of the season — while the sestet shifts to an urgent, almost desperate plea, conveying anxiety that such purity cannot last.

1. The thrush's blue-speckled eggs are compared to tiny skies. The thrush's song, described through verbs suggesting wringing and rinsing, is presented as purifying or cleansing the air around it.

1. The peartree's leaves are described as glassy and reflective, appearing to mirror a sky that seems to race down to meet them.

1. Hopkins presents spring as a remnant echo of Eden — the world as God originally and perfectly created it, before humanity's fall into sin. This connects to Victorian debates about evolution and original sin, giving the Eden imagery a subtle argumentative dimension.

1. "Juice" is a deliberately earthy, tangible word, suggesting that holiness and divine energy are not abstract or distant but physically present and flowing through the living world — grounding the sacred in the real.

1. Hopkins addresses Christ directly in the sestet, urging him to claim and affirm the innocence of children before the corrupting influence of the world can take hold of them.

1. The poem moves from pure sensory celebration of nature (description and observation) toward theological prayer and petition — from witnessing beauty to trying to preserve it.

1. The peartree's gleaming beauty, existing at the edge of perfection, subtly recalls the Tree of Knowledge in Eden — a symbol of loveliness that stands just before an inevitable fall, reinforcing the poem's broader theme of innocence on the brink of corruption.

1. Both children and spring are portrayed as innocent, radiant, and fleeting. Just as spring must yield to summer and eventual decay, children's innocence is vulnerable to the corrupting influence of the world. The poem implies that both forms of purity are precious precisely because they cannot endure.