"The May Magnificant" ~ Hopkins

[ferine]

Ask of Her, the mighty Mother.
Her reply puts this other
Question: What is Spring?
Growth in every thing -

Flesh and fleece, fur and feather,
Grass and green world all together,
Star-eyed strawberry breasted
Throstle above Her nested

Cluster of bugle blue eggs thin
Forms and warms the life within,
And bird and blossom swell
In sod or sheath or shell.
~ Gerard Manly Hopkins, The May Magnificant, 1888