Analysis of Let me be to Thee as the circling bird

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



Let me be to Thee as the circling bird,
Or bat with tender and air-crisping wings
That shapes in half-light his departing rings,
From both of whom a changeless note is heard.
I have found my music in a common word,
Trying each pleasurable throat that sings
And every praised sequence of sweet strings,
And know infallibly which I preferred.

The authentic cadence was discovered late
Which ends those only strains that I approve,
And other science all gone out of date
And minor sweetness scarce made mention of:
I have found the dominant of my range and state -
Love, O my God, to call Thee Love and Love.


Scheme ABBAABBA CXCDCD
Poetic Form
Metre 11111101001 111100111 1101110101 111101111 11111000101 1011000111 0100110111 0111101 00101010101 1111011101 0101011111 0101011101 111010011101 1111111101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 607
Words 112
Sentences 4
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 6
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 241
Words per stanza (avg) 55
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 20, 2023

33 sec read
145

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Reverend Father Gerard Manley Hopkins, S. more…

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