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To seem the stranger

By Gerard Manley Hopkins

Topics: classic

To seem the stranger lies my lot, my life     Among strangrs. Father and mother dear,     Brothers and sisters are in Christ not near     And he my peace my parting, sword and strife.     England, whose honour O all my heart woos, wife     To my creating thought, would neither hear     Me, were I pleading, plead nor do I: I wear-     y of idle a being but by where wars are rife.     I am in Ireland now; now I am at a thrd     Remove. Not but in all removes I can     Kind love both give and get. Only what word     Wisest my heart breeds dark heaven's baffling ban     Bars or hell's spell thwarts. This to hoard unheard,     Heard unheeded, leaves me a lonely began.

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"To seem the stranger lies my lot, my life..."

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Author:Gerard Manley Hopkins

"To seem the stranger lies my lot, my life..." 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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