Spring and Fall - Gerard Manley Hopkins

This poem is so cute! I know, I know, it's rhyming, but it's so adorable. It's a sweet poem that speaks out to me especially because I always remember my elders telling me to enjoy childhood because it was so precious, but I disagreed with them because being a grown-up seemed so glamourous and seemed to open up so many doors to freedom. Now I can see that these doors of freedom come with more doors of limitation, and innocence is something I miss everyday. And it seems like just yesterday when I'd be in my driveway as a child, playing with chalk or the sandbox, or my bike or hot wheels (yeah I had a hot wheels, jealous are you?) and I just wish I could go back to those carefree days and experience them again.

I feel like it's a grandpa talking to his grand-daughter about the trials and tribulations of life, telling her that life gets hard and that it's difficult. He's telling her to cherish childhood and innocence (Lines 5-6) because as you get older, life gets more difficult as do the things you encounter. There's a shift in here somewhere, where I stop completely understanding what Hopkins is saying - it starts on line 10 "Now no matter, child, the name: / Sorrow's springs are the same." What's the name he's refering to? Whose name? After this point in the poem I start to lose track of what exactly he's trying to say. Albeit this shift, the poem seems very flouous - it's simple and pure. It flows in and out, and I can see the words being woven onto the page...at least that's what it feels like.