As Kingfishers Catch Fire

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



As king fishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
   As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
   Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's
 Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
 Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
   Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
   Selves -- goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
 Crying What I do is me: for that I came.

 I say more: the just man justices;
   Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces;
 Acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is --
   Christ. For Christ plays in ten thousand places,
 Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
   To the Father through the features of men's faces.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 21, 2023

38 sec read
214

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBAABBA CDDCDC
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 679
Words 125
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 6

Gerard Manley Hopkins

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