How to keep-is there any any, is there none such, nowhere known some, bow or brooch or braid or brace, lace, latch or catch or key to keep Back beauty, keep it, beauty, beauty, beauty, ... from vanishing away?
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The speaker searches for a way to preserve beauty against its inevitable disappearance, finding no solution.
- In plain terms
- Is there any way to keep beauty from disappearing forever?
- What can you take from it?
- Beauty is temporary and hard to preserve.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Can anything truly be kept?
- Why does beauty fade?
Another view
It assumes preservation is possible but fails.
More from Gerard Manley Hopkins
What would the world be, once bereft Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left, O let them be left, wildness and wet; Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.
Permalink to quote #48 Give beauty back, beauty, beauty, beauty, back to God, beauty's self and beauty's giver.
Permalink to quote #50 Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed What heart heard of, ghost guessed: It is the blight man was born for, It is Margaret you mourn for.
Permalink to quote #47
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