Binsey Poplars

[1][2] The poem was inspired by the felling of a row of poplar trees near the village of Binsey, northwest of Oxford, England, and overlooking Port Meadow on the bank of the River Thames.

[3] The replacements for these trees, running from Binsey north to Godstow, lasted until 2004, when replanting began again.

[4] The Bodleian Library of Oxford University holds a draft manuscript of the poem, handwritten by Hopkins, acquired in 2013.

[5] The text of the poem is as follows:[6][7] My aspens dear, whose airy cages quelled, Quelled or quenched in leaves the leaping sun, All felled, felled, are all felled; Of a fresh and following folded rank Not spared, not one That dandled a sandalled Shadow that swam or sank On meadow and river and wind-wandering weed-winding bank.

Since country is so tender To touch, her being so slender, That, like this sleek and seeing ball But a prick will make no eye at all, Where we, even where we mean To mend her we end her, When we hew or delve: After-comers cannot guess the beauty been.

‘All felled, felled, are all felled’ — photograph of felled poplar trees with a line from the poem ‘Binsey Poplars’.
Gerard Manley Hopkins , author of ‘Binsey Poplars’.