6. The Silver Jubilee. Hopkins, Gerard Manley. 1918. Poems

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89). Poems. 1918.

6. The Silver Jubilee

To James First Bishop of Shrewsbury on the 25th Year of his Episcopate July 28. 1876


1 THOUGH no high-hung bells or din
Of braggart bugles cry it in—
What is sound? Nature’s round
Makes the Silver Jubilee.

2 Five and twenty years have run	5
Since sacred fountains to the sun
Sprang, that but now were shut,
Showering Silver Jubilee.

3 Feasts, when we shall fall asleep,
Shrewsbury may see others keep;	10
None but you this her true,
This her Silver Jubilee.

4 Not today we need lament
Your wealth of life is some way spent:
Toil has shed round your head	15
Silver but for Jubilee.

5 Then for her whose velvet vales
Should have pealed with welcome, Wales,
Let the chime of a rhyme
Utter Silver Jubilee.	20

See Notes.