Analysis of The Wreck Of The Deutschland

Gerard Manley Hopkins 1844 (Stratford, London) – 1889 (Dublin)



[[A-text]]
to the happy memory of five Francisan nuns, exiles by the Falck Laws,
drowned between midnight |&| morning of December 7 [[1875]].

PART THE FIRST

Thou mastering me
   God! giver of breath and bread;
 World's strand, sway of the sea;
   Lord of living |&| dead;
     Thou hast bound bones |&| veins in me, fastened me flesh,
   And after it {'a}lmost {'u}nmade, what with dread,
   Thy doing: |&| dost thou touch me afresh?
 Over again I feel thy finger |&| find the{'e}.

I did say yes
   O at lightning |&| lashed rod;
 Thou heardst me truer than tongue confess
   Thy terror, O Christ, O God;
     Thou knowest the walls, altar |&| hour |&| night:
   The swoon of a heart that the sweep |&| the hurl of thee trod
     Hard down with a horror of height:
 And the midriff astrain with leaning of, laced with fire of stress.

The frown of his face
   Before me, the hurtle of hell
 Behind, where, where was a, where was a place?
   I whirled out wings that spell
     And fled with a fling of the heart to the heart of the Host.
   My heart, but you were dovewinged, I can tell,
     Carrier-witted, I am bold to boast,
 To flash from the flame to the flame then, tower from the grace to the
grace

I am soft sift
   In an hourglass -- at the wall
 Fast, but mined with a motion, a drift,
   And it crowds |&| it combs to the fall;
     I steady as a water in a well, to a poise, to a pane,
   But roped with, always, all the way down from the tall
     Fells or flanks of the voel, a vein
 Of the gospel proffer, a pressure, a principle, Christ's gift.

I kiss my hand
   To the stars, lovely-asunder
 Starlight, wafting him out of it; and
   Glow, glory in thunder;
     Kiss my hand to the dappled-with-damson west:
   Since, tho' he is under the world's splendour |&| wonder,
     His mystery must be instressed, stressed;
 For I greet him the days I meet him, |&| bless when I understand.

Not out of his bliss
   Springs the stress felt
 Nor first from heaven (and few know this)
   Swings the stroke dealt --
     Stroke |&| a stress that stars |&| storms deliver,
   That guilt is hushed by, hearts are flushed by |&| melt --
     But it rides time like riding a river
 (And here the faithful waver, the faithless fable |&| miss).

It dates from day
   Of his going in Galilee;
 Warm-laid grave of a womb-life grey;
   Manger, maiden's knee;
     The dense |&| the driven Passion, |&| frightful sweat:
   Thence the discharge of it, there its swelling to be,
     Tho' felt before, though in high flood yet --
 What none would have known of it, only the heart, being hard at bay,

Is out with it! Oh,
   We lash with the best or worst
     Word last! How a lush-kept plush-capped sloe
   Will, mouthed to flesh-burst,
 Gush! -- flush the man, the being with it, sour or sweet,
   Brim, in a flash, full! -- Hither then, last or first,
 To hero of Calvary, Christ,'s feet --
     Never ask if meaning it, wanting it, warned of it -- men go.

Be adored among men,
   God, three-number{'e}d form;
 Wring thy rebel, dogged in den,
   Man's malice, with wrecking |&| storm.
     Beyond saying sweet, past telling of tongue,
   Thou art lightning |&| love, I found it, a winter |&| warm;
     Father |&| fondler of heart thou hast wrung:
 Hast thy dark descending |&| most art merciful then.

With an anvil-ding
   And with fire in him forge thy will
 Or rather, rather then, stealing as Spring
   Through him, melt him but master him still:
     Whether {'a}t {'o}nce, as once at a crash Paul,
   Or as Austin, a lingering-out sweet skill,
     Make mercy in all of us, out of us all
 Mastery, but be adored, but be adored king.

Part the second

< br>
 "Some find me a sword; some
   The flange |&| the rail; flame,
 Fang, or flood" goes Death on drum,
   And storms bugle his fame.
     But w{'e} dr{'e}am we are rooted in earth -- Dust!
   Flesh falls within sight of us, we, though our flower the same,
     Wave with the meadow, forget that there must
 The sour scythe cringe, |&| the blear share come.

On Saturday sailed from Bremen,
   American-outward-bound,
 Take settler |&| seamen, tell men with women,
   Two hundred souls in the round --
     O Father, not under th


Scheme XXX A BCBCDCDX EFEFGFGE HIHIJIJXH KLKLMLMK NOPOQOQN RSRSOSOR TBTBUBUT VAVAWAWV XYXYZYZX 1 2 1 2 L2 L1 P O3 4 3 4 5 4 5 3 6 7 6 7 X
Poetic Form Tetractys  (25%)
Etheree  (21%)
Metre 01 1010100111111011 10111010101 101 11001 1101101 111101 11101 11111011011 01011111111 110111101 100111110101 1111 111011 111101101 1101111 110110101 0110110101111 11101011 00111101111011 01111 01101011 0111101101 111111 01101101101101 111101111 1001011111 1110110111010110 1 1111 0110101 111101001 01111101 1101010001101101 11111011101 11110101 101010010010011 1111 10110010 11011110 110010 1111011101 11111001110 11001111 11110111111101 11111 1011 111100111 1011 101111010 1111111111 1111110010 010101001101 1111 1110010 11110111 1011 0101010101 100111111011 110110111 1111111100110111 11111 1110111 111011111 11111 1101010111011 10011101111 110110011 101110110111111 101011 1110111 1110101 1101101 0110111011 111011110101 10111111 111010111001 11101 011001111 1101011011 111111011 101111111011 11100100111 11001111111 100110111011 1010 1 111011 01011 1111111 011011 110011111110011 110111111101001 110101111 010110111 11001110 0100101 11001011110 1101001 11011011
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 4,168
Words 744
Sentences 22
Stanzas 15
Stanza Lengths 3, 1, 8, 8, 9, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 1, 9, 5
Lines Amount 100
Letters per line (avg) 29
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 194
Words per stanza (avg) 49
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 18, 2023

3:47 min read
167

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Reverend Father Gerard Manley Hopkins, S. more…

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