The Child is Father to the Man

'The child is father to the man.'
How can he be? The words are wild.
Suck any sense from that who can:
'The child is father to the man.'
No; what the poet did write ran,
'The man is father to the child.'
'The child is father to the man!'
How can he be? The words are wild!


— Gerard Manley Hopkins


This Fathers' Day we share Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) The Child is Father to the Man. One of the leading Victorian poets, Hopkins "sprung rhythm" poetry ran contrary to the rhyming poetry of the time.