The May Magnificat by Gerard Manley Hopkins May is Mary’s month, and I Muse at that and wonder why :        Her feasts follow reason,        Dated due to season—   Candlemas, Lady Day ; But the Lady Month, May,        Why fasten that upon her,        With a feasting in her honour ?   Is it only its being brighter Than the most are must delight her ?        Is it opportunist        And flowers finds soonest ?   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 greenworld 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.   All things rising, all things sizing Mary sees, sympathizing        With that world of good        Nature’s motherhood.   Their magnifying of each its kind With delight calls to mind        How she did in her stored        Magnify the Lord.   Well but there was more than this : Spring’s universal bliss        Much, had much to say        To offering Mary May.   When drop-of-blood-and-foam-dapple Bloom lights the orchard-apple        And thicket and thorp are merry        With silver-surfèd cherry   And azuring-over greybell makes Wood banks and brakes wash wet like lakes        And magic cuckoocall        Caps, clears, and clinches all—   This ecstasy all through mothering earth Tells Mary her mirth till Christ’s birth        To remember and exultation        In God who was her salvation.	Visit the  PG Bookshop