16 August 2012

Gerard Manley Hopkins in Stratford: London #1

This memorial is in a prominent position outside the public library in The Grove, Stratford, London.

'GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS
Poet
Born 28th July 1844
Died 8th June 1889

Was born and lived at 87 The Grove Stratford near this site
until 1851/2

"Loathed for a love men knew in them
Banned by the land of their birth,
Rhine refused them. Thames would ruin them,
Surf, snow, river and earth
Gnashed: but thou art above, thou Orion of light.'

from: Stanza 21 'The Wreck of the Deutschland'".'

A few yards away, at 146–148 The Grove, is the Goldengrove pub, which named after the word in Hopkins's poem 'Spring and Fall'.

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