Analysis of Thou Art Indeed Just, Lord, If I Contend
Gerard Manley Hopkins 1844 (Stratford, London) – 1889 (Dublin)
Justus quidem tu es, Domine, si disputem tecum:
verumtamen justa loquar ad te:
Quare via impiorum prosperatur? &c.
Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend
With thee; but, sir, so what I plead is just.
Why do sinners' ways prosper? and why must
Disappointment all I endeavour end?
Wert thou my enemy, O thou my friend,
How wouldst thou worse, I wonder, than thou dost
Defeat, thwart me? Oh, the sots and thralls of lust
Do in spare hours more thrive than I that spend,
Sir, life upon thy cause. See, banks and brakes
Now leavèd how thick! lacèd they are again
With fretty chervil, look, and fresh wind shakes
Them; birds build -- but not I build; no, but strain,
Time's eunuch, and not breed one work that wakes.
Mine, O thou lord of life, send my roots rain.
Scheme | XAA BCCB BXCBDXDEDE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10111010111 110111 110111 1101111101 1111111111 1110110011 010110101 1111001111 1111110111 01111010111 10110111111 1101111101 11111111101 11110111 1111111111 1100111111 1111111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 758 |
Words | 143 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 3, 4, 10 |
Lines Amount | 17 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 192 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 47 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 01, 2023
- 43 sec read
- 121 Views
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