Analysis of Ash-Boughs
Gerard Manley Hopkins 1844 (Stratford, London) – 1889 (Dublin)
Not of all my eyes see, wandering on the world,
Is anything a milk to the mind so, so sighs deep
Poetry to it, as a tree whose boughs break in the sky.
Say it is ashboughs: whether on a December day and furled
Fast ór they in clammyish lashtender combs creep
Apart wide and new-nestle at heaven most high.
They touch heaven, tabour on it; how their talons sweep
The smouldering enormous winter welkin! May
Mells blue and snowwhite through them, a fringe and fray
Of greenery: it is old earth’s groping towards the steep
Heaven whom she childs us by.
(Variant from line 7.) b.
They touch, they tabour on it, hover on it[; here, there hurled],
With talons sweep
The smouldering enormous winter welkin. [Eye,
But more cheer is when] May
Mells blue with snowwhite through their fringe and fray
Of greenery and old earth gropes for, grasps at steep
Heaven with it whom she childs things by.
Scheme | ABCABCBDDBC X ABXDDBC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111111100101 110011011111 10011101111001 11111010010101 11101111 011011011011 111011111101 010101011 1101110101 11001111100101 1011111 100111 1111111011111 1101 010101011 111111 111111101 110001111111 101111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 894 |
Words | 165 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 11, 1, 7 |
Lines Amount | 19 |
Letters per line (avg) | 37 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 232 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 54 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 49 sec read
- 157 Views
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