The Windhover: To Christ Our Lord

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



I caught this morning morning's minion, king-
  dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
  Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
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 and gliding
  Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird,--the achieve of; the mastery of the thing!

Brute beauty and valour and 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 wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
  Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.

Anonymous submission.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 11, 2023

42 sec read
121

Quick analysis:

Scheme AAAAAAAA XBC BCB
Closest metre Iambic heptameter
Characters 799
Words 137
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 8, 3, 3

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Reverend Father Gerard Manley Hopkins, S. more…

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