Towery city and branchy between towers; <br />Cuckoo-echoing, bell-swarmèd, lark-charmèd, rook-racked, river-rounded; <br />The dapple-eared lily below thee; that country and town did <br />Once encounter in, here coped and poisèd powers; <br /> <br />Thou hast a base and brickish skirt there, sours <br />That neighbour-nature thy grey beauty is grounded <br />Best in; graceless growth, thou hast confounded <br />Rural rural keeping—folk, flocks, and flowers. <br /> <br />Yet ah! this air I gather and I release <br />He lived on; these weeds and waters, these walls are what <br />He haunted who of all men most sways my spirits to peace; <br /> <br />Of realty the rarest-veinèd unraveller; a not <br />Rivalled insight, be rival Italy or Greece; <br />Who fired France for Mary without spot.<br /><br />Gerard Manley Hopkins<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/duns-scotus-s-oxford/
