SparkNotes: Hopkins's Poetry: "Spring and Fall" (1880)

From the page: This poem has a lyrical rhythm appropriate for an address to a child. In fact, it appears that Hopkins began composing a musical accompaniment to the verse, though no copy of it remains extant.

Now granted, this is a poem written by an Englishman. And it has nothing to do with our problem at hand, except two things:

1. Poems (duh) translate very easily into songs. All of us are aware epics were once sung. Poems in a sense are songs.

2. The theme of this poem, man's mortality and his ultimate yearning, is a universal theme. It does show up in American poetry, but I think it is safe to say in older American poetry mainly. The more recent concern is with love and a politics which reflects love, and wouldn't you know...