Analysis of To a Young Child

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



Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you will weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sorrow's springs are the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.


Scheme AABBCCDDDEEFFGG
Poetic Form
Metre 1001110 1011 1101111 11111111 1101110 11111110 1011101 111111 01111011 1110101 11101 11111101 111111 11011111 11100111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 497
Words 96
Sentences 7
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 15
Lines Amount 15
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 389
Words per stanza (avg) 94
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 30, 2023

29 sec read
154

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Reverend Father Gerard Manley Hopkins, S. more…

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