Analysis of As Kingfishers Catch Fire

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



As king fishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
   As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
   Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's
 Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
 Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
   Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
   Selves -- goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
 Crying What I do is me: for that I came.

I say more: the just man justices;
   Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces;
 Acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is --
   Christ. For Christ plays in ten thousand places,
 Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
   To the Father through the features of men's faces.


Scheme ABBAABBA CDDCDC
Poetic Form
Metre 1110110111 1101010101 1111111111 1111111111 1101111001 111101111 110111101 10111111111 111011100 1111111010 1011101111 1111011010 10010100111 101010101110
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 679
Words 125
Sentences 4
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 6
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 36
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 254
Words per stanza (avg) 62
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 21, 2023

38 sec read
213

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Reverend Father Gerard Manley Hopkins, S. more…

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