| Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89). Poems. 1918. |
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| 44. ‘To seem the stranger lies my lot, my life’ |
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| TO seem the stranger lies my lot, my life | |
| Among strangers. Father and mother dear, | |
| Brothers and sisters are in Christ not near | |
| And he my peace my parting, sword and strife. | |
| England, whose honour O all my heart woos, wife | 5 |
| To my creating thought, would neither hear | |
| Me, were I pleading, plead nor do I: I wear- | |
| y of idle a being but by where wars are rife. | |
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| I am in Ireland now; now I am at a thírd | |
| Remove. Not but in all removes I can | 10 |
| Kind love both give and get. Only what word | |
| Wisest my heart breeds dark heaven’s baffling ban | |
| Bars or hell’s spell thwarts. This to hoard unheard, | |
| Heard unheeded, leaves me a lonely began. | |
| | | See Notes. |
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