1
Inversnaid 1.
Inversnaid - Gerard Manley Hopkins
This darksome burn, horseback brown,
Gerard Manley Hopkins 2. His rollrock highroad roaring down,
3. In coop and in comb the fleece of his foam
4. Flutes and low to the lake falls home.
5. A windpuff-bonnet of fáwn-fróth
6. Turns and twindles over the broth
7. Of a pool so pitchblack, féll-frówning,
8. It rounds and rounds Despair to drowning.
9. Degged with dew, dappled with dew
10. Are the groins of the braes that the brook treads through,
11. Wiry heathpacks, flitches of fern,
12. And the beadbonny ash that sits over the burn.
13. What would the world be, once bereft
14. Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
15. O let them be left, wildness and wet;
16. Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.
In 'Inversnaid' Gerard Manley Hopkins was inspired by the time he spent in the Scottish Highlands. He adapted many Scottish
dialectic words to this particular piece and titled the poem after a small village in which he stayed. This poem is an example of
how he continually explores the possibilities of words.
The poem was written at the height of the Industrial Revolution in England and Scotland and the poet makes an appeal that such
places should not be destroyed forever by man’s search for wealth at any price. The poet praises the special and irreplaceable
beauty of the ‘wetness and wildness’ of the world.
@Juffrou_Ansie
, 2
SETTING:
❖ The poem was written in the autumn of 1881, at the height of the Industrial Revolution in Europe.
❖ It is set in the village of Inversnaid on the east bank of Loch Lomond in Scotland.
❖ Set amongst the hills and mountains of the Scottish Highlands, Loch Lomond is one of the country’s largest lakes.
Water races down the hillside, flows powerfully down rocks and over a waterfall, and then eases into many pools filled
with froth - Inversnaid Falls is one of the largest waterfalls in the area.
TITLE:
The poem’s title is derived from the village of Inversnaid on the east
bank of Loch Lomond in Scotland. It describes a stream that races
down over rocks to the lake in that area.
STRUCTURE:
❖ The poem consists of four four-line stanzas (quatrains) that
each has two rhyming couplets.
❖ These quatrains follow a simple rhyme scheme of aabb ccdd
eeff gghh.
❖ The first three stanzas are single sentences, but the last
stanza contains two sentences.
❖ The first three stanzas depict a lively and exciting picture of
Nature in our minds and the final stanza is a plea that this
natural beauty should be preserved.
@Juffrou_Ansie
Inversnaid 1.
Inversnaid - Gerard Manley Hopkins
This darksome burn, horseback brown,
Gerard Manley Hopkins 2. His rollrock highroad roaring down,
3. In coop and in comb the fleece of his foam
4. Flutes and low to the lake falls home.
5. A windpuff-bonnet of fáwn-fróth
6. Turns and twindles over the broth
7. Of a pool so pitchblack, féll-frówning,
8. It rounds and rounds Despair to drowning.
9. Degged with dew, dappled with dew
10. Are the groins of the braes that the brook treads through,
11. Wiry heathpacks, flitches of fern,
12. And the beadbonny ash that sits over the burn.
13. What would the world be, once bereft
14. Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
15. O let them be left, wildness and wet;
16. Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.
In 'Inversnaid' Gerard Manley Hopkins was inspired by the time he spent in the Scottish Highlands. He adapted many Scottish
dialectic words to this particular piece and titled the poem after a small village in which he stayed. This poem is an example of
how he continually explores the possibilities of words.
The poem was written at the height of the Industrial Revolution in England and Scotland and the poet makes an appeal that such
places should not be destroyed forever by man’s search for wealth at any price. The poet praises the special and irreplaceable
beauty of the ‘wetness and wildness’ of the world.
@Juffrou_Ansie
, 2
SETTING:
❖ The poem was written in the autumn of 1881, at the height of the Industrial Revolution in Europe.
❖ It is set in the village of Inversnaid on the east bank of Loch Lomond in Scotland.
❖ Set amongst the hills and mountains of the Scottish Highlands, Loch Lomond is one of the country’s largest lakes.
Water races down the hillside, flows powerfully down rocks and over a waterfall, and then eases into many pools filled
with froth - Inversnaid Falls is one of the largest waterfalls in the area.
TITLE:
The poem’s title is derived from the village of Inversnaid on the east
bank of Loch Lomond in Scotland. It describes a stream that races
down over rocks to the lake in that area.
STRUCTURE:
❖ The poem consists of four four-line stanzas (quatrains) that
each has two rhyming couplets.
❖ These quatrains follow a simple rhyme scheme of aabb ccdd
eeff gghh.
❖ The first three stanzas are single sentences, but the last
stanza contains two sentences.
❖ The first three stanzas depict a lively and exciting picture of
Nature in our minds and the final stanza is a plea that this
natural beauty should be preserved.
@Juffrou_Ansie
