Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TO HIS WATCH by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS

Poet Analysis

First Line: MORTAL MY MATE, BEARING MY ROCK-A-HEART
Last Line: AND THEN THAT LAST AND SHORTEST...

MORTAL my mate, bearing my rock-a-heart
Warm beat with cold beat company, shall I
Earlier or you fail at our force, and lie
The ruins of, rifled, once a world of art?
The telling time our task is; time's some part,
Not all, but we were framed to fail and die --
One spell and well that one. There, ah thereby
Is comfort's carol of all or woe's worst smart.

Field-flown, the departed day no morning brings
Saying 'This was yours' with her, but new one, worse,
And then that last and shortest...




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