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 Views
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