To James First Bishop of Shrewsbury on the
25th Year of his Episcopate July 28. 1876
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.
***
Poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Gerard Manley Hopkins is one of the most important poets of the Victorian era. A convert to Roman Catholicism, he served as a Jesuit priest and is remembered for his innovative and interesting verse. Most of his work was unpublished, hence unknown and unappreciated, in his own lifetime, so the literary fame came to Hopkins posthumously.