History & Politics

Duns Scotus's Oxford

by Gerard Manley Hopkins 1844–1889

From Poems (1918)

History & Politics

TOWERY city and branchy between towers;
Cuckoo-echoing, bell-swarmèd, lark-charmèd, rook-
racked, river-rounded;
The dapple-eared lily below thee; that country and
town did
Once encounter in, here coped and poisèd powers;

Thou hast a base and brickish skirt there, sours
That neighbour-nature thy grey beauty is grounded
Best in; graceless growth, thou hast confounded
Rural rural keeping--folk, flocks, and flowers.

Yet ah! this air I gather and I release
He lived on; these weeds and waters, these walls are what
He haunted who of all men most sways my spirits to peace;

Of realty the rarest-veinèd unraveller; a not
Rivalled insight, be rival Italy or Greece;
Who fired France for Mary without spot.

MLA

Hopkins, Gerard Manley. “Duns Scotus's Oxford.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/hopkins/19/.

Chicago

Hopkins, Gerard Manley. “Duns Scotus's Oxford.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/hopkins/19/.

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