now that words like
_charm_ and _enchantment_ will not do: the thought is of
beauty as of something that can be physically kept and
lost and by physical things only, like keys; then the
things must come from the _mundus muliebris_; and
thirdly they must not be markedly oldfashioned. You
will sec that this limits the choice of words very much
indeed. However I shall make some changes. _Back_ is
not pretty, but it gives that feeling of physical constraint
which I want.' And in Oct. '86 to R. W. D., 'I never did
anything more musical'.
37. 'MARY MOTHER OF DIVINE GRACE COMPARED TO THE
AIR WE BREATHE. Stonyhurst, May '83.' Autograph
in A.--Text and title from later autograph in B. Taken
by Dean Beeching into 'A Book of Christmas Verse' 1895
and thence, incorrectly, by Orby Shipley in 'Carmina
Mariana'. Stated in a letter to R. W. D. June 25, '83,
to have been written to 'hang up among the verse com-
positions in the tongues. ... I did a piece in the same
metre as _Blue in the mists all day_.' Note Chaucer's
account of the physical properties of the air, 'House of
Fame', ii. 256, seq.
38. 'To WHAT SERVES MORTAL BEAUTY? (Common rhythm
highly stressed: sonnet.) Aug. 23, '85.' Autograph in
A.--Another autograph in B with a few variants from
which A was chosen, the deletion of alternatives incom-
plete. Thirdly a copy sent to R. W. D., apparently later
than A, but with errors of copy. The text given is guided
by this version in D, and _needs_ in line 9 is substituted
there for the _once_ in A and B, probably because of _once_
in line 6.--Original draft exists in H, on same page with
39 and 40. The following is his signature at this date:
Your affectionate friend
Gerard M. Hopkins S.J.
May 29 1885
Transcriber's note: This signature and date is displayed as a
handwritten image in the original.
39. SOLDIER. 'Clongower, Aug. 1885.' Autograph in H,
with a few corrections which I have taken for lines 6 and
7, of which the first draft runs:
It fancies; it deems; dears the artist after his art;
So feigns it finds as, &c.
The MS. marks the caesural place in ten of the lines
in line 2, between _Both_ and _these_. l 3, at the full stop.
l. 6, _fancies_, _feigns_, _deems_, take three stresses. l. 11,
after _man_. In line 7 I have added a comma at _smart_.
In l. 10 I have substituted _handle_ for _reave_ of MS.: see
note on _reave_, p. 101; and in l. 13, have hyphened _God
made flesh_. No title in MS.
40.
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