What would the world be, once bereft Of wet and of wildness?
Let them be left, O let them be left, wildness and wet; Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet. Perhaps the beauty of the scene reminded Hopkins of the destruction of the poplars and the ash tree in the garden and stirred this cry for the preservation of particularity. His question in this portion is rhetorical, at least for the person whose spiritual eyes are open. A person in touch with the Creator would recognize that the loss of wildness and wet hinders his ability to perceive God in the world. The unrequired answer to Hopkins’ question is: barren and meaningless. Without wildness and wet the world would be reduced to a place of shallow utilitarian uniformity bereft of significance. The last poem Hopkins wrote with this theme was Ribblesdale, completed in June of 1883. In the opening quatrain Hopkins celebrates creation’s ability to fulfill the task God has given her, simply to only be: EARTH, sweet Earth, sweet landscape, with leaves throng And louched low grass, heaven that d
