"Moonless Darkness Stands Between"
by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Moonless darkness stands between.
Past, the Past, no more be seen!
But the Bethlehem-star may lead me
To the sight of Him Who freed me
From the self that I have been.
Make me pure, Lord: Thou art holy;
Make me meek, Lord: Thou wert lowly;
Now beginning, and alway:
Now begin, on Christmas day.
Gerard Manley Hopkins
(1844 – 1889)
- Was an English poet, Roman Catholic convert, and Jesuit priest
- Became famous among the leading Victorian poets
- Was a daring innovator in a period of largely traditional verse
Sprung Rhythm
- Structured around feet with a variable number of syllables
- Generally between one and four syllables per foot
- Stress always falling on the first syllable in a foot
- No regular meter
Essentially his technique was all about compression: sprung rhythm squeezes out weak or 'slack' syllables and condenses the strong stresses, one to each foot.
- Stephen Fry
Stress is the life of it
- Hopkins (writing to friend Robert Bridges )
Make me pure, Lord: Thou art holy;
Make me meek, Lord: Thou wert lowly;
- Only one weak syllable on these lines
- Makes the words stronger. It sounds like the speaker really means it.
Moonless darkness stands between.
Past, the Past, no more be seen!
- Author describes a point in his life. A cross roads.
- The "moonless darkness" is a complete break. A new beginning.
- Hopkins went through such a crossroads when he converted to Catholicism
But the Bethlehem-star may lead me
To the sight of Him Who freed me
From the self that I have been.
- He has left the past behind—put off the old self—and has set his life's direction to something new: Bethlehem star.
- He is forming his character around Christ, abandoning "the self that I have been"
Make me pure, Lord: Thou art holy;
Make me meek, Lord: Thou wert lowly;Now beginning, and alway:
Now begin, on Christmas day.
- He realizes that this means he will have to change, through Christ working in him.
- He must become pure as He was holy, Meek as He was lowly.
- How appropriate that this process should begin now and continuing for all eternity, the advent of Christ, the new Adam.
Moonless Darkness Stands Between
By Timothy Krell
Moonless Darkness Stands Between
Presentation of the poem "Moonless Darkness Stands Between" by Gerard Manley Hopkins
