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 Views
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"As Kingfishers Catch Fire" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 4 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/15844/as-kingfishers-catch-fire>.
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