Religion

The Silver Jubilee

by Gerard Manley Hopkins 1844–1889

From Poems (1918)

Religion

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
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;
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
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.

✦ ✦ ✦

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

MLA

Hopkins, Gerard Manley. “The Silver Jubilee.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/hopkins/5/.

Chicago

Hopkins, Gerard Manley. “The Silver Jubilee.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/hopkins/5/.

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