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.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 42 sec read
- 168 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABBAABBA CCXCCX |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 769 |
Words | 125 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 6 |
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"The Caged Skylark" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 4 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/15890/the-caged-skylark>.
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