| Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89). Poems. 1918. |
| |
| 63. ‘The furl of fresh-leaved dogrose down’ |
| |
| |
| THE FURL of fresh-leaved dogrose down | |
| His cheeks the forth-and-flaunting sun | |
| Had swarthed about with lion-brown | |
| Before the Spring was done. | |
| |
| His locks like all a ravel-rope’s-end, | 5 |
| With hempen strands in spray— | |
| Fallow, foam-fallow, hanks—fall’n off their ranks, | |
| Swung down at a disarray. | |
| |
| Or like a juicy and jostling shock | |
| Of bluebells sheaved in May | 10 |
| Or wind-long fleeces on the flock | |
| A day off shearing day. | |
| |
| Then over his turnèd temples—here— | |
| Was a rose, or, failing that, | |
| Rough-Robin or five-lipped campion clear | 15 |
| For a beauty-bow to his hat, | |
| And the sunlight sidled, like dewdrops, like dandled diamonds | |
Through the sieve of the straw of the plait.
. . . . . . . | |
| | | See Notes. |
| |
| |
