L I B R A R Y L E A R N I N G - Woodstock School

Library Learning Page 3Nothing is sobeautiful as Spring-When weeds, in wheels, shoot longand lovely and lush;Thrush’s eggs look like little lowheavens, and thrushThrough the echoing timber doesnot so rinse and wring the ear, itstrikes like lightening to hear himsing; the glassy peartree leavesand blooms, they brushThe descending blue; that blue isall in a rushWith richness; the racing lambstoo have their fair fling.What is all this juice and joy?A strain of earth’s sweet beginningin Eden . — Have, get, beforeit cloy,Before it cloud, Christ, lord, andsour with sinning, Innocent mindMayday in girl and boy,Most, O maid’s child, thy choice andworth the winning.Gerard Manley Hopkins1844-1889 821 HOPCan you guess which ofour Woodstock Staff isn’tknown for the followingaccomplishments– yet?2. Who surfed thewaves in a HELICOP-TER off the coast ofNew Guinea??After Gerard ManleyHopkins was ordained aJesuit priest, he burnedthe early prize-winningpoems that had wonhim a scholarship toBalliol College at Oxford. Personalambition, he believed, had noplace in a life devoted so conspicuouslyto God.But, after reading the works of themedieval empiricist philosopher,Duns Scotus, Hopkins began to believethat the everything hasunique characteristics -what hecalled “inscape”- that even apriest-poet ought to celebrate.“Hopkins is just weird,” is the conclusionof some of his greatestenthusiasts. “He’s a pious Anglo-Catholic—and they’re the worstkind of fanatic - with the sensibilitiesof Lord Byron, all set to aStravinsky-meets-Gershwin syncopatedbeat,” the eccentric poetpriestMalachi Martin once observed.Hopkins’ uses his “sprung”meter to elaborate many of thesame themes as Wordsworth, with?????4. Which teacher can win aPIE-EATING CONTEST & alsoKNIT?5. .Who of the WS staff hasmet HRH Prince Philip?6. Who spent earlierdays in a QUON-SET HUT in BIHAR?Woodstock Who?-Of course Iremember!some formalmetaphysics thrownin, all expressed from the point ofview of deep religious faith.Hopkins’ sprung rhythm accentsonly two syllables per line, nomatter how many words he uses. Itis the sound of a Hopkins poemthat is most distinctive and makeshim sound “modern,” despite histraditional values and conventionalimagery. In the end, every artistmust use his particular talents andindividual perspective to representsome aspect of the collective humanexperience in a new way.It was during Hopkins’ short lifethat Europeans began to discoverand appreciate the art of Japan,which had, perforce, just opened tothe wider world. Whilethe Japanese love ofnature appealed tothe late-Romantics,the composition andperspective of the artforms was, like Hopkins’poetry, a bit off-beat and hasinspired “modernists” ever since.answers on last page7. Which teacher has drunk fermentedhorse’s milk?8.Who spent time in a Dominicanprison?9. Who worked as a Frenchwaitress?Yummy!Let’s dolunch!

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