Spring Religion Quotes

Notice how Hopkins uses the word "heaven" in this description. As the poem progresses, we come to see that this connection between heaven and earth (the availability of the heavenly on earth) is very important.

The word "brush" calls to mind a paintbrush, and suggests the idea of a creator who made the world, as a painter creates a painting.

Just like the word "heavens," this allusion to something biblical is slipped in here. And were it not for the explicit references to the Garden of Eden and Christ later, we might have just thought the lambs are part of the scene, maybe adding a connotation of innocence. But we see later that the Christian connotations are deeply important: Christ as Lamb of God and Christians as sheep in God's flock.

Here we see that, as beautiful and joyous as spring is, it also serves as a reminder of what was lost when man was expelled from Eden. It also implies what will be lost, as the seasons change, and as the innocent kids grow up.

Here the poem turns into a prayer, directly addressed to Christ. It seems that the culmination of all the speaker's attention to the natural world and contemplation of Christian teachings is in a prayer, a direct communication with God.

Through this prayer, and the acknowledgment that it is God's choice, our speaker seems to return a little to the praise and triumph of the earlier lines.