May, the month of Mary (III)

'May Magnificat'

May is Mary’s month and I
Muse at that and wonder why:
Her feasts follow reason,
Dated due to season –

Candlemas, Lady Day;
But the Lady Month, May,
Why fasten that upon her,
With a feasting in her honour?…

Ask of her, the mighty mother:
Her reply puts this other
Question: What is spring? –
Growth in every thing –

Flesh and fleece, fur and feather,
Grass and greenworld altogether;
Star-eyed strawberry-breasted
Throstle above her nested

Cluster of bugle blue eggs thin
Forms and warms the life within;
And bird and blossom swell
In sod or sheath or shell.

All things rising, all things sizing
Mary sees sympathising
With that world of good
Nature’s motherhood…

By Gerard Manley Hopkins