Gerard Manley Hopkins: Spelt From Sibyl’s Leaves

Ivan Bootham reads “Spelt from Sibyl’s Leaves” by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889). Bootham has this to say on the meaning of the poem: Its meaning is the loss of meaning! The world gives us meaning. Our words consciously or subconsciously relate our existence to the world. At our end it has no meaning for us. That which replaces it? The ego-less peace that passeth all understanding? (Refer to the Hopkins poem “Peace”.) Hopkins did speak of the poem “Spelt From Sibyl’s Leaves“ as a kind of Dies Irae. I think the poem can be thought as expressing in very metaphoric terminology the unwinding of the world from us and we from it as we approach our last journey. (If one is afeared this includes a diversion through the Underworld, then you could consult a prophetic Sibyl. She may even intervene on your behalf should your soul be deemed worthy of her testimony.) I sense the poem does relate a little to Dante’s “Inferno“. Hopkins’s meaningful use of language in “Spelt From Sibyl’s Leaves“ would be thought astounding had it been written in this day and age; that it was written in the late 1800s beggars belief.