Hopkins & poetry analysis

Gerard Manley Hopkins
the poems: a selection

“God’s Grandeur” (1877; 1918)
The world is charged with the grandeur of God,
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod; 5
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

“God’s Grandeur” (1877; 1918)
simile, metonymy, & metaphor
The world is charged with the grandeur of God,
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod; 5
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

“God’s Grandeur” (1877; 1918)
simile, metonymy, & metaphor
The world is charged with the grandeur of God,
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod; 5
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

“God’s Grandeur” (1877; 1918)
simile, metonymy, & metaphor
The world is charged with the grandeur of God,
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod; 5
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

“God’s Grandeur” (1877; 1918)
simile, metonymy, & metaphor
The world is charged with the grandeur of God,
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod; 5
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

“God’s Grandeur” (1877; 1918)
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things; 10
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

“God’s Grandeur” (1877; 1918)
grammar play, ellipsis, & alliteration
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things; 10
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

“God’s Grandeur” (1877; 1918)
grammar play, ellipsis, & alliteration
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things; 10
And though the last lights off the black West went [away]
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

“God’s Grandeur” (1877; 1918)
grammar play, ellipsis, & alliteration
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things; 10
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

“As Kingfishers Catch Fire” (1877; 1918)
As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same: 5
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves!—goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying What I do is me: for that I came.

“As Kingfishers Catch Fire” (1877; 1918)
kinetic verbs, odd syntax, grammar play
As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same: 5
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves!—goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying What I do is me: for that I came.

“As Kingfishers Catch Fire” (1877; 1918)
kinetic verbs, odd syntax, grammar play
As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same: 5
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves!—goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying What I do is me: for that I came.

“As Kingfishers Catch Fire” (1877; 1918)
kinetic verbs, odd syntax, grammar play
As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same: 5
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves!—goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying What I do is me: for that I came.

“As Kingfishers Catch Fire” (1877; 1918)
I say more: the just man justices;
Keeps gráce: thát keeps all his goings graces; 10
Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is—
Chríst. For Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces.

“As Kingfishers Catch Fire” (1877; 1918)
“sprung rhythm” [below: one possible scansion]
| I say | more: the | just | man | justices;
| Keeps | gráce: | thát | keeps all his | goings graces; 10
| Acts in | God’s | eye what in | God’s | eye he is—
| Chríst. For | Christ | plays in ten | thousand | places,
| Lovely in | limbs, and | lovely in | eyes | not his
| To the | Father through the | features of | men’s | faces.

interrupt slideshow:
look at “Pied Beauty”
in Norton, Vol. E (1518)

“Hurrahing in Harvest” (1877; 1918)
Summer ends now; now, barbarous in beauty, the stooks
rise
Around; up above, what wind-walks! what lovely behaviour
Of silk-sack clouds! has wilder, willful-wavier
Meal-drift moulded ever and melted across skies?

“Hurrahing in Harvest” (1877; 1918)
pairings, compounds, personification, metaphor
Summer ends now; now, barbarous in beauty, the stooks
rise
Around; up above, what wind-walks! what lovely behaviour
Of silk-sack clouds! has wilder, willful-wavier
Meal-drift moulded ever and melted across skies?

“Hurrahing in Harvest” (1877; 1918)
pairings, compounds, personification, metaphor
Summer ends now; now, barbarous in beauty, the stooks
rise
Around; up above, what wind-walks! what lovely behaviour
Of silk-sack clouds! has wilder, willful-wavier
Meal-drift moulded ever and melted across skies?

“Hurrahing in Harvest” (1877; 1918)
pairings, compounds, personification, metaphor
Summer ends now; now, barbarous in beauty, the stooks
rise
Around; up above, what wind-walks! what lovely behaviour
Of silk-sack clouds! has wilder, willful-wavier
Meal-drift moulded ever and melted across skies?

“Hurrahing in Harvest” (1877; 1918)
pairings, compounds, personification, metaphor
Summer ends now; now, barbarous in beauty, the stooks
rise
Around; up above, what wind-walks! what lovely behaviour
Of silk-sack clouds! has wilder, willful-wavier
Meal-drift moulded ever and melted across skies?

“Hurrahing in Harvest” (1877; 1918)
I walk, I lift up, I lift up heart, eyes, 5
Down all that glory in the heavens to glean our Saviour;
And, éyes, heárt, what looks, what lips yet gave you a
Rapturous love’s greeting of realer, of rounder replies?

“Hurrahing in Harvest” (1877; 1918)
repetition, paradox, question
I walk, I lift up, I lift up heart, eyes, 5
Down all that glory in the heavens to glean our Saviour;
And, éyes, heárt, what looks, what lips yet gave you a
Rapturous love’s greeting of realer, of rounder replies?

“Hurrahing in Harvest” (1877; 1918)
repetition, paradox, question
I walk, I lift up, I lift up heart, eyes, 5
Down all that glory in the heavens to glean our Saviour;
And, éyes, heárt, what looks, what lips yet gave you a
Rapturous love’s greeting of realer, of rounder replies?

“Hurrahing in Harvest” (1877; 1918)
repetition, paradox, question
I walk, I lift up, I lift up heart, eyes, 5
Down all that glory in the heavens to glean our Saviour;
And, éyes, heárt, what looks, what lips yet gave you a
Rapturous love’s greeting of realer, of rounder replies?

“Hurrahing in Harvest” (1877; 1918)
And the azurous hung hills are his world-wielding
shoulder
Majestic—as a stallion stalwart, very-violet-sweet! 10
These things, these things were here and but the beholder
Wanting; which two when they once meet,
The heart rears wings bold and bolder
And hurls for him, O half hurls earth for him off under his
feet.

“Hurrahing in Harvest” (1877; 1918)
surprising combinations, repetition, oxymoron
And the azurous hung hills are his world-wielding
shoulder
Majestic—as a stallion stalwart, very-violet-sweet! 10
These things, these things were here and but the beholder
Wanting; which two when they once meet,
The heart rears wings bold and bolder
And hurls for him, O half hurls earth for him off under his
feet.

“Hurrahing in Harvest” (1877; 1918)
surprising combinations, repetition, oxymoron
And the azurous hung hills are his world-wielding
shoulder
Majestic—as a stallion stalwart, very-violet-sweet! 10
These things, these things were here and but the beholder
Wanting; which two when they once meet,
The heart rears wings bold and bolder
And hurls for him, O half hurls earth for him off under his
feet.

“Hurrahing in Harvest” (1877; 1918)
surprising combinations, repetition, oxymoron
And the azurous hung hills are his world-wielding
shoulder
Majestic—as a stallion stalwart, very-violet-sweet! 10
These things, these things were here and but the beholder
Wanting; which two when they once meet,
The heart rears wings bold and bolder
And hurls for him, O half hurls earth for him off under his
feet.

“[Carrion Comfort” (1885; 1918)
Not, I’ll not, carrion comfort, Despair, not feast on thee,
Not untwist—slack they may be—these last strands of man
In me ór, most weary, cry I can no more. I can;
Can something, hope, wish day come, not choose not to be.

“[Carrion Comfort” (1885; 1918)
metaphor, unexpected clarity, double negative
Not, I’ll not, carrion comfort, Despair, not feast on thee,
Not untwist—slack they may be—these last strands of man
In me ór, most weary, cry I can no more. I can;
Can something, hope, wish day come, not choose not to be.

“[Carrion Comfort” (1885; 1918)
metaphor, unexpected clarity, double negative
Not, I’ll not, carrion comfort, Despair, not feast on thee,
Not untwist—slack they may be—these last strands of man
In me ór, most weary, cry I can no more. I can;
Can something, hope, wish day come, not choose not to be.

“[Carrion Comfort” (1885; 1918)
metaphor, unexpected clarity, double negative
Not, I’ll not, carrion comfort, Despair, not feast on thee,
Not untwist—slack they may be—these last strands of man
In me ór, most weary, cry I can no more. I can;
Can something, hope, wish day come, not choose not to be.

“[Carrion Comfort” (1885; 1918)
But ah, but O thou terrible, why wouldst thou rude on me
Thy wring-world right foot rock? lay a lionlimb against me?
scan
With darksome devouring eyes my bruised bones? and fan,
O in turns of tempest, me heaped there; me frantic to avoid
thee and flee?

“[Carrion Comfort” (1885; 1918)
grammar play, new compounds
But ah, but O thou terrible, why wouldst thou rude on me
Thy wring-world right foot rock? lay a lionlimb against me?
scan
With darksome devouring eyes my bruised bones? and fan,
O in turns of tempest, me heaped there; me frantic to avoid
thee and flee?

“[Carrion Comfort” (1885; 1918)
grammar play, new compounds
But ah, but O thou terrible, why wouldst thou rude on me
Thy wring-world right foot rock? lay a lionlimb against me?
scan
With darksome devouring eyes my bruised bones? and fan,
O in turns of tempest, me heaped there; me frantic to avoid
thee and flee?

“[Carrion Comfort” (1885; 1918)
Why? That my chaff might fly; my grain lie, sheer and
clear.
Nay in all that toil, that coil, since (seems) I kissed the rod,
Hand rather, my heart lo! lapped strength, stole joy, would
laugh, chéer.
Cheer whom though? The Hero whose heaven-handling
flung me, fóot tród
Me? or me that fought him? O which one? Is it each one?
That night, that year
Of now done darkness I wretch lay wrestling with (my God!)

“[Carrion Comfort” (1885; 1918)
tensions
Why? That my chaff might fly; my grain lie, sheer and
clear.
Nay in all that toil, that coil, since (seems) I kissed the rod,
Hand rather, my heart lo! lapped strength, stole joy, would
laugh, chéer.
Cheer whom though? The Hero whose heaven-handling
flung me, fóot tród
Me? or me that fought him? O which one? Is it each one?
That night, that year
Of now done darkness I wretch lay wrestling with (my God!)