Analysis of The Caged Skylark

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



As a dare-gale skylark scanted in a dull cage,
   Man's mounting spirit in his bone-house, mean house, dwells --
   That bird beyond the remembering h{'i}s free fells;
 This in drudgery, day-labouring-out life's age.
 Though aloft on turf or perch or poor low stage
   Both sing somet{'i}mes the sweetest, sweetest spells,
   Yet both droop deadly s{'o}metimes in their cells
 Or wring their barriers in bursts of fear or rage.

Not that the sweet-fowl, song-fowl, needs no rest --
 Why, hear him, hear him babble |&| drop down to his nest,
   But his own nest, wild nest, no prison.
 Man's spirit will be flesh-bound, when found at best,
 But {'u}nc{'u}mber{`e}d: meadow-d{'o}wn is n{'o}t distr{'e}ssed
   For a r{'a}inbow f{'o}oting it nor h{'e} for his b{'o}nes r{'i}sen.


Scheme ABBAABBA CCXCCX
Poetic Form
Metre 1011110011 110100111111 11010010011111 1010011111 10111111111 11111010101 11110111011 111100011111 1101111111 111111011111 111111110 11011111111 111111111111111111 10111111111111111111
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 769
Words 125
Sentences 5
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 6
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 39
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 274
Words per stanza (avg) 62
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

42 sec read
168

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Reverend Father Gerard Manley Hopkins, S. more…

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