B i n s e y P o p l a r s
felled 1879
My aspens dear, whose airy cages quelled, Quelled or quenched in leaves the leaping sun, Áll félled, félled, are áll félled;
Of a fresh and following folded rank Not spared, not one That dandled a sandalled Shadow that swam or sank
On meadow and river and wind-wandering weed-winding bank.
O if we but knew what we do When we delve or hew— Hack and rack the growing green!
[ Since country is so tender
To tóuch, her béing só slénder, That, like this sleek and seeing ball But a prick will make no eye at all, Where we, even where we mean To mend her we end her, When we hew or delve:]
After-comers cannot guess the beauty been.
Ten or twelve, only ten or twelve Strokes of havoc únselve The sweet especial scene, Rural scene, a rural scene, Sweet especial rural scene.
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Notes on the poem
Some years after being a student at Oxford, Hopkins returned for a visit. Taking time to walk to a favorite spot along the River Cherwell, he found the entire stand of trees felled. “Binsey Poplars” is the poet’s elegy for this place, these trees. The tragedy of their loss is made more poignant by Hopkins’ observation of both the ease of the destruction “only ten or twelve strokes” of the axe and the ultimate nature of the destruction; the “sweet especial rural scene” is essentially unmade, unselved so utterly that “aftercomers cannot [even] guess the beauty [that had] been” here in this place.
Notes on the piece
A portion of the poem’s second part was omitted so that this movement could be structured as a strophic song with two identical verses. Care should be taken to ensure that the singers with the melody don’t overwhelm the singers with the accompanying hums. The three note accompanying motives can be understood in three ways as the sound of the wind through the trees, as the slight motion of the trees themselves in the wind, or as soft moans of lament.