The Shepherd’s Brow, Fronting Forked Lightning, Owns

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



The shepherd's brow, fronting forked lightning, owns
The horror and the havoc and the glory
Of it. Angels fall, they are towers, from heaven—a story
Of just, majestical, and giant groans.
But man—we, scaffold of score brittle bones;
Who breathe, from groundlong babyhood to hoary
Age gasp; whose breath is our memento mori—
What bass is our viol for tragic tones?
He! Hand to mouth he lives, and voids with shame;
And, blazoned in however bold the name,
Man Jack the man is, just; his mate a hussy.
And I that die these deaths, that feed this flame,
That … in smooth spoons spy life’s masque mirrored: tame
My tempests there, my fire and fever fussy.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 12, 2023

35 sec read
81

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBAABBACCBCCB
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 666
Words 118
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Reverend Father Gerard Manley Hopkins, S. more…

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