Duns Scotus's Oxford
TOWERY city and branchy between towers;Cuckoo-echoing, bell-swarmed, lark-charmed, rook-racked, river-rounded;The dapple-eared lily below thee; that country andtown didOnce encounter in, here coped and poised powers;
Thou hast a base and brickish skirt there, soursThat neighbour-nature thy grey beauty is groundedBest in; graceless growth, thou hast confoundedRural rural keeping--folk, flocks, and flowers.
Yet ah! this air I gather and I releaseHe lived on; these weeds and waters, these walls are whatHe haunted who of all men most sways my spirits to peace;
Of realty the rarest-veined unraveller; a notRivalled insight, be rival Italy or Greece;Who fired France for Mary without spot.
Words in this poem
- towery a.
- Having towers; adorned or defended by towers.
- branchy a.
- Full of branches; having wide-spreading branches; consisting of branches.
- rook n.
- Mist; fog. See Roke.
- coped a.
- Clad in a cope.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- sours n.
- Source. See Source.
- neighbour v. i.
- To dwell in the vicinity; to be a neighbor, or in the neighborhood; to be near.
- graceless a.
- Wanting in grace or excellence; departed from, or deprived of, divine grace; hence, depraved; corrupt.
- haunted a.
- Inhabited by, or subject to the visits of, apparitions; frequented by a ghost.
- realty n.
- Realty. Dr. H. More. [Contr. from 1st Reality.]
- insight n.
- A sight or view of the interior of anything; a deep inspection or view; introspection; -- frequently used with into.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Duns Scotus's Oxford is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins Now First Published, Project Gutenberg ebook #22403; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Gerard Manley Hopkins, Duns Scotus's Oxford, in Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22403, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hopkins-poems/duns-scotus-s-oxford.html, id L04390.
Form and metre
Duns Scotus's Oxford is 16 lines in 4 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter. 76% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.4 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 A-B-BA towersA · rook · roundedB · and · didB · powersA
- 2 ABBA soursA · groundedB · confoundedB · flowersA
- 3 A-A releaseA · what · peaceA
- 4 A-A notA · greece · spotA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| TOWERY city and branchy between towers; | 11 | ˘/˘/˘·/˘··/ |
| Cuckoo-echoing, bell-swarmed, lark-charmed, rook- | 10 | /·/˘˘····· |
| racked, river-rounded; | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| The dapple-eared lily below thee; that country and | 13 | ·/˘·/˘····/˘· |
| town did | 2 | ·· |
| Once encounter in, here coped and poised powers; | 11 | ·˘/˘·····/˘ |
| Thou hast a base and brickish skirt there, sours | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| That neighbour-nature thy grey beauty is grounded | 12 | ·/˘/˘··/˘·/˘ |
| Best in; graceless growth, thou hast confounded | 10 | ··/˘···˘/˘ |
| Rural rural keeping--folk, flocks, and flowers. | 11 | /˘/˘/˘···/˘ |
| Yet ah! this air I gather and I release | 11 | ·····/˘··˘/ |
| He lived on; these weeds and waters, these walls are what | 12 | ······/˘···· |
| He haunted who of all men most sways my spirits to peace; | 14 | ·/˘·······/˘·· |
| Of realty the rarest-veined unraveller; a not | 13 | ·/˘·/˘······· |
| Rivalled insight, be rival Italy or Greece; | 11 | /˘/··/˘/˘·· |
| Who fired France for Mary without spot. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.