| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | The Starlight Night | | By Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889) |
| | | LOOK at the stars! look, look up at the skies! | |
| O look at all the fire-folk sitting in the air! | |
| The bright boroughs, the quivering citadels there! | |
| The dim woods quick with diamond wells; the elf-eyes! | |
| The grey lawns cold where quaking gold-dew lies! | 5 |
| Wind-beat white-beam; airy abeles all on flare! | |
| Flake-doves sent floating out at a farmyard scare!— | |
| Ah well! it is a purchase and a prize. | |
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| Buy then! Bid then!—What?—Prayer, patience, alms, vows.— | |
| Look, look! a May-mess, like on orchard boughs; | 10 |
| Look! March-bloom, like on meal’d-with-yellow sallows.— | |
| These are indeed the barn: within-doors house | |
| The shocks. This piece-bright paling hides the Spouse | |
| Christ, and the mother of Christ and all his hallows. | | | | |
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