To Seem The Stranger Lies My Lot, My Life

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



To seem the stranger lies my lot, my life
Among strangers. Father and mother dear,
Brothers and sisters are in Christ not near
And he my peace my parting, sword and strife.
  England, whose honour O all my heart woos, wife
To my creating thought, would neither hear
Me, were I pleading, plead nor do I: I wear-
y of idle a being but by where wars are rife.

  I am in Ireland now; now I am at a thírd
Remove. Not but in all removes I can
Kind love both give and get. Only what word
Wisest my heart breeds dark heaven's baffling ban
Bars or hell's spell thwarts. This to hoard unheard,
Heard unheeded, leaves me a lonely began.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 14, 2023

37 sec read
105

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBAAXXA CDCDCD
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 622
Words 123
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 6

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Reverend Father Gerard Manley Hopkins, S. more…

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