A lot has been made of "sprung rhythm," which can best be heard in "The Windhover." In his letters to Bridges he perhaps over-explains his practice by using extrapolations from traditional metrical terms. That said, a good deal of Hopkins's poetry is written in traditional meters. This one is accentual (or "sprung") with lines ranging from 3 to 6 stresses. I can't be quite sure if the pattern is exactly maintained in each stanza.
Last edited by R. S. Gwynn; 04-01-2024 at 01:17 PM.
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