Gerard Manley Hopkins, selected poems Contents
- As Kingfishers Catch Fire
- Binsey Poplars
- The Blessed Virgin Mary Compared to the Air We Breathe
- Carrion Comfort
- Duns Scotus' Oxford
- God's Grandeur
- Harry Ploughman
- Henry Purcell
- Hurrahing in Harvest
- Inversnaid
- I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark
- Synopsis of I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark
- Commentary on I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark
- Language and tone in I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark
- Structure and versification in I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark
- Imagery and symbolism in I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark
- Themes in I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark
- The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo
- Synopsis of The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo
- Commentary on The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo
- Language and tone in The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo
- Structure and versification in The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo
- Imagery and symbolism in The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo
- Themes in The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo
- The May Magnificat
- My Own Heart, Let Me Have More Pity On
- Synopsis of My Own Heart, Let Me Have More Pity On
- Commentary on My Own Heart, Let Me Have More Pity On
- Language and tone in My Own Heart, Let Me Have More Pity On
- Structure and versification in My Own Heart, Let Me Have More Pity On
- Imagery and symbolism in My Own Heart, Let Me Have More Pity On
- Themes in My Own Heart, Let Me Have More Pity On
- No Worst, There is None
- Patience, Hard Thing!
- Pied Beauty
- The Sea and the Skylark
- Spelt from Sibyl's Leaves
- Spring
- Spring and Fall
- St. Alphonsus Rodriguez
- The Starlight Night
- That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the Comfort of the Resurrection
- Synopsis of That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire
- Commentary on That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire
- Language and tone in That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire
- Structure and versification in That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire
- Imagery and symbolism in That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire
- Themes in That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire
- Thou Art Indeed Just, Lord
- Tom's Garland
- To Seem the Stranger
- To What Serves Mortal Beauty
- The Windhover
- The Wreck of the Deutschland
- Beauty and its purpose
- The beauty, variety and uniqueness of nature
- Christ's beauty
- Conservation and renewal of nature
- God's sovereignty
- The grace of ordinary life
- Mary as a channel of grace
- Nature as God's book
- Night, the dark night of the soul
- Serving God
- Suffering and faith
- The temptation to despair
- The ugliness of modern life
- Understanding evil in a world God has made
Metre in The Wreck of the Deutschland
A flexible approach
According to Hopkins' notebooks, he wanted his metre to be seen as basically trochaic, as he saw this as the basic speech rhythm. Some critics have tried to scan the verse in this way.
However, it could be equally well argued that English speech rhythm is basically iambic, which is the metre of the great majority of English verse.
It is best to see Hopkins' scansion as being very flexible, rather than to fit it into a rigid pattern in this poem. In later sonnets, he does revert to iambic metre more readily.
Looking at stanza 30:
- we start with clear trochees at the beginning of most lines: Je-; Je-; What?; Thou; Feast; Word, all begin with a stressed syllable. Only ll.6,7 begin with unstressed syllables
- however, as we have seen, the final syllable of each line is also stressed, which would be more in line for iambic metre
- somewhere along the line, the metre switches from a falling metre to a rising one. (It has to be remembered that in iambic, a first-foot inversion is very common.)
Investigating metre in The Wreck of the Deutschland
- Can you see in stanza 30 where the metre does change in each line?
- How many lines merely have a first foot inversion of a rising or iambic metre?
- Would you really say the metre is falling or rising or a mixed metre?
- Can you see how this affects the rhythm?
- Hopkins said that poetry needs to be read out loud.
- Have you found it easier to analyse and understand when you have done this yourself or heard a good reader read it?
- Has this experimental verse helped you understand some of Hopkins' techniques and ideas of poetry more clearly?
The particular measurement in a line of poetry, determined by the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables (in some languages, the pattern of long and short syllables). It is the measured basis of rhythm.
Use of a metric foot in a line of verse, consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed. It is thus a falling metre.
A term used of speech rhythms in blank verse; an iambic rhythm is an unstressed, or weak, beat followed by a stressed, or strong, beat. It is a rising metre.
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