Analysis Of Spring And Fall To A Young Child By Gerard Hopkins

A wise man once said “Grieve not for the dead for the dead feel no pain….Instead weep for the living, who heal to hurt again.” When burying a loved one, a person’s heart tends to fill with sadness and at first thought one may think it’s because someone they cared about has passed. The truth is though, they do not mourn the person but the idea that they will never get to see, or talk to that person again. So they mourn for the loss they are receiving not the loss of the dead. Gerard Hopkins enlightens us on this concept in his poem Spring and Fall to a young child, when a child believes she mourns for the loss of fall leaves.
The idea of death is easy for many people to understand, but the thought of a friend being dead and never is harder …show more content…
It is a very personal feeling but at the same time it is very public as well. Hopkins expresses this emotion in the poem “And yet you will weep and know why. Now no matter, child the name: Sorrow springs are the same.” When someone dies and has a direct impact on the living person’s life, that person feels that they are alone and no one else can empathize with them. Though every mourner’s way of coping is slightly different, they are all the same. It doesn’t matter, who died, “the name”, the place, exedra, every person shows tears in a time of sadness. It is a universal S.O.S stating that he or she is sad go comfort them. And even though people will be emotional in different settings whether the funeral or that night into their pillow, everyone will shed at least one tear. This is the point Hopkins is trying to make when saying “Sorrow springs are all the same”. The springs are the universal tears of sadness every person will have in their own time of …show more content…
The reason this phrase does not bring peace to the family permanently is because they are not weeping because they feel their loved one is in a bad place, but instead they cannot emotionally grasp the fact that they will never see this person again. Hopkins last line in Spring and Fall reveals this truth about human nature. “It is Margret you mourn for”. In the poem the little girl thinks she’s sad because the fall leaves are gone until next year but in reality she’s sad because she won’t be able to see the leaves until next year. This is the same for the mourning family, they know the person is in a good place (or so they hope) but they cannot internalize that dead means no visiting or calling or just being in the room with this person anymore. They mourn for that main reason not for the actual death of the