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The shepherd's brow

By Gerard Manley Hopkins

Topics: classic

The shepherd's brow fronting forked lightning, owns     The horror and the havoc and the glory     Of it. Angels fall, they are towers, from heaven - a story     Of just, majestical, and giant groans.     But man - we, scaffold of score brittle bones;     Who breathe, from groundlong babyhood to hoary     Age gasp; whose breath is our memento mori -     What bass is our viol for tragic tones?     He! Hand to mouth he lives, and voids with shame;     And, blazoned in however bold the name,     Man Jack the man is, just; his mate a hussy.     And I that die these deaths, that feed this flame,     That ... in smooth spoons spy life's masque mirrored: tame     My tempests there, my fire and fever fussy.

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"The shepherd's brow fronting forked lightning, owns..."

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Author:Gerard Manley Hopkins

"The shepherd's brow fronting forked lightning, own..." by Gerard Manley Hopkins

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Gerard Manley Hopkins

About Gerard Manley Hopkins

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889) was an English Jesuit poet who invented "sprung rhythm," a new metrical system. His poems—including "The Windhover," "Pied Beauty," and "God's Grandeur"—were published posthumously and are now celebrated for their ecstatic language and innovative prosody.

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"Wild air, world-mothering air,     Nestling me eve..."

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