Nature's motherhood

THE MAY MAGNIFICAT


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 honor?
Ask of her, the mighty mother:
Her reply puts this other
Question: What is Spring?
Growth in every thing-

All things rising, all things sizing
Mary sees, sympathizing
With that world of good,
Nature's motherhood.

Well but there was more than this:
Spring's universal bliss
Much, had much to say
To offering Mary May.


Gerard Manley Hopkins 

Robert, Cyril. Mary Immaculate: God's Mother and Mine. New York: Marist Press, 1946.