Analysis of The Handsome Heart
Gerard Manley Hopkins 1844 (Stratford, London) – 1889 (Dublin)
at a Gracious Answer
‘But tell me, child, your choice; what shall I buy
You?’—‘Father, what you buy me I like best.’
With the sweetest air that said, still plied and pressed,
He swung to his first poised purport of reply.
What the heart is! which, like carriers let fly—
Doff darkness, homing nature knows the rest—
To its own fine function, wild and self-instressed,
Falls light as ten years long taught how to and why.
Mannerly-hearted! more than handsome face—
Beauty’s bearing or muse of mounting vein,
All, in this case, bathed in high hallowing grace…
Of heaven what boon to buy you, boy, or gain
Not granted?—Only … O on that path you pace
Run all your race, O brace sterner that strain!
Scheme | X ABBA ABBA CDC DCD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 101010 1111111111 1101111111 10101111101 1111111101 10111110011 1101010101 1111101011 11111111101 11011101 110111101 101110111 11011111111 11010111111 1111111011 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 722 |
Words | 130 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 4, 4, 3, 3 |
Lines Amount | 15 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 106 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 25 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 10, 2023
- 39 sec read
- 110 Views
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