Poem of the week

I hope to post more snapshots of Oxford soon. Flying home, unpacking, and starting work again has interrupted my blogging routine.

For now, the poem of the week, with a fitting picture. I couldn't resist.

Duns Scotus's Oxford
Gerard Manley Hopkins

Towery city and branchy between towers,
Cuckoo-echoing, bell-swarmèd, lark-charmèd, rook-racked, river-rounded,
The dapple-eared lily below thee; that country and town did
Once encounter in, here coped and poisèd powers;

Thou hast a base and brackish skirt there, sours
That neighbour-nature thy grey beauty is grounded
Best in; graceless growth, thou hast confounded
Rural rural keeping—folk, flocks, and flowers.

Yet ah! this air I gather and release
He lived on; these weeds and waters, these walls are what
He haunted who of all men most sways my spirits to peace;

Of realty the rarest-veinèd unraveller; a not
Rivalled insight, be rival Italy or Greece
Who fired France for Mary without spot.