Father's Day

My heart leaps up when I behold
   A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;    
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
   Or let me die!                         
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

 

“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!
 
Gerald Manley Hopkins (1884-1889)