Analysis of The Windhover

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



To Christ our Lord
 I caught this morning morning's minion, king{\-}
   dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-d{'a}wn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
   Of the r{'o}lling level {'u}ndern{'e}ath him steady {'a}ir, |&|
str{'i}ding
 High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
 In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
   As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl |&| gliding
   Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
 Stirred for a bird, -- the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!

Brute beauty |&| valour |&| act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
   Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion
 Times told lovelier, more dangerous, o my chevalier!
   No w{'o}nder of it: sh{'e}er pl{'o}d makes pl{'o}ugh down s{'i}llion
 Shine, |&| blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
   Fall, g{'a}ll thems{'e}lves, |&| g{'a}sh g{'o}ld-verm{'i}lion.


Scheme XAABAAAAAA BCBCBC
Poetic Form
Metre 11101 1111010101 1111011111100110 1011110111111011 111 1111101011011 01100111111 10111110110110 0101111010 110100110100101 1101111111 10001011111010 11111001101 1100111111011111111111 11110111 11111111111111110
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 859
Words 140
Sentences 7
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 10, 6
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 37
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 296
Words per stanza (avg) 69
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 20, 2023

47 sec read
159

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Reverend Father Gerard Manley Hopkins, S. more…

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