Sights & Sounds: Springtime beauty at the Cathedral Basilica
Spring has arrived at Newark’s Branch Brook Park, which means that the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart is garlanded by a beautiful sea of pink, white, and yellow blossoms and flowers — a wonderful sign of new life during the Octave of Easter.
The scene brings to mind Gerard Manley Hopkin’s poetic meditation on springtime:
Nothing is so beautiful as Spring –
When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;
Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens, and thrush
Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring
The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;
The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush
The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush
With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.
What is all this juice and all this joy?
A strain of the earth’s sweet being in the beginning
In Eden garden. – Have, get, before it cloy,
Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning,
Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy,
Most, O maid’s child, thy choice and worthy the winning.
– Spring, Gerard Manley Hopkins
Gerard Manley Hopkins: Priest and Poet
The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins was born in 1844 in Stratford, a town in East London (not to be confused with Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of Shakespeare). Baptized in the Anglican Church, he studied classics at Oxford and while there felt drawn to the Catholic faith. He was received into the Catholic Church by Saint John Henry Newman in October 1866 and was ordained as a Jesuit priest eleven years later.
Father Hopkins served as a professor of Greek and Latin at University College Dublin, but due to his unimpressive appearance, he was not highly regarded by his students. Hopkin’s poetry was shared only with a few friends during his lifetime. It was not until 1918 that his poems were published and received wide critical acclaim. Today he is considered to be one of the greatest poets of the 19th century. His work had a tremendous influence on later writers like T.S. Eliot and Dylan Thomas.
In a 2013 interview, Pope Francis named Hopkins among the writers whose work he enjoyed and that had influenced him.
Watch the video below to view the cherry blossoms at Newark’s Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart.
Each week, Jersey Catholic features the rich and inspiring “Sights & Sounds” of the Archdiocese of Newark. Visit us regularly to explore our vibrant parishes, sacred artworks, historic landmarks, and the faithful men, women and youth who bring our Catholic community to life.
Editor’s note: This video was originally published, with different content, on April 4, 2025.
