~1~

Poetry
Inversnaid
- Friar (Jesuit Priest) in Victorian era (1820-1914)
- Regarded as modern poet→ innovative rhythm
- emulates natural speech (sprung rhythm)
 Poet: - Coins many new + unusual words specifically for this poem:
= nonces
-

- 4 quatrains
- Rhyme scheme: aabb ccdd gghh
- Sprung rhyme: together with the rhyme scheme, internal
rhythm + rhythm of poem
 Structure:
- Rhythm= 4 stressed syllables + any number of stressed
syllables
- Use of alliteration, assonance, enjambment + repetition
→ contribute towards rhythm of poem (faster/ slower)
- Stream rushes down Scottish hillside to Loch Lomond
 Title:

Themes:
Natural wonder
• Speaker= in awe of beauty of nature
• Expresses wonder through newly- coined words + alliteration

Preservation of nature
• Speaker= concerned about Industrial Revolution- might destroy nature
• Comments on man’s concern with prosperity + disregard of beautiful places
• Poem ends with call :
• Preservation of nature= everyone’s responsibillity

Wildness:
• Nature= at best when left unspoilt by mankind
 ~2~

Peace:
• Purpose of life= living as God intended us to- close to nature

Future:
• Speaker pleads with humanity to preserve nature for future generations

Depression and despair:

• Although poet celebrates vigour beauty of nature- sense that darkness + depression=
present just like anything caught up in black waters of whirlpool

Tone + Mood:
Stanza 1: Stanza 3:
- Vitality + energy - Tone picks up
- Creates mood of movement + life - Becomes one of hope
- Confidence + certainty in tone as - Supports mood of appreciation of
speaker convinces man that places of nature
such beauty should be preserved
Stanza 4:
Line 2-6:
- Tone of urgency, pleading/ begging
- Light-heartedness - Creates dark mood as speaker is
wondering what would happen if we
Stanza 2:
lost nature + beauty
- Tone of despair - Tone becomes one of desperation:
- Creates dark + sombre mood - = filled with intensity + emotional
pleading
Line 7:
➔ We should preserve nature- like
- Change of tone: modern day Greta Thunberg
- Becomes foreboding
- Things will turn out horribly wrong

Symbols:
 Wilderness- must be left untouched
 Although poem focuses on one place- symbolises all aspects of nature
 ~3~

Summary:
→ He= describing stream in remote part of Scottish Highlands on east bank of Loch
Lomond
→ Poem- written during height of Industrial Revolution – was claiming much of
countryside
→ Richer folks escaped countryside
→ Queen Victoria→ had royal treatment in Scotland= Balmoral
Were Queen Elizabeth died in 2022
→ Hopkins pleads that such natural places be protected + are essential to man’s
existence
Stanza 1:
- Stream= rushing down Scottish hillside to Lock Lomond
- Begins high in hills + rushes over tocks
- Eventually flows into lake
- Brook/ stream= personified as man full of power + energetic movement
Stanza 2:
- Many pools filled with dark, swirling water
- Creates froth on surface
- Pools= dark + suggests despair + destruction of natural world
Stanza 3:
- Dew sparkles on banks beside stream where wild plants like heath, ferns + ash
trees grow
Stanza 4:
- Passionate plea that beauty should be left alone to survive

Analysis:
1. This darksome burn, Darksome- dark + gloomy
horseback brown, Alliteration- emphasises dark colour of stream
Metaphor- stream = wild horse racing down hill
- Water= brown of colour
2. His rollrock highroad → Water over rock= quick downhill path of water
roaring down, → emphasises speed of water racing to lake
Rollrock=nonce- water flowing over rocks
- one word for racy, quick, downhill path of water
His= Personification- stream= male horse stallion (filled with energy)
Metaphor- stream swirls around + tumbles taking rocks with it
- roars down main road of rock + lands in coop-hollow
Alliteration- hard sounds
 ~4~

3. In coop and comb the Coop- hollow where water swirls before it moves on to flow into lake
fleece of his foam Metaphor- foam + fleece of lamb= white froth on top of the water as it
moves slower here

4. Flutes and low to the lake Metaphor- foam looks like long-stemmed glasses
falls home. - Water cascades like this down into pool
- Water= confined into narrow space before moves on into wider
waters of lake

l3+4:
Alliteration ‘l’- longer as water moves through hollow
Alliteration ‘f’- short + quick→represents small dancing whips of foam
Assonance- speed of water= unrestrained horse
- Turns into o-shaped whirlpool as water slows + swirls around in pool

5. A windpuff-bonnet of Metaphor- spray of water as it falls into stream creates froth at the top
fawn-froth = compared to lady’s bonnet
Alliteration- emphasises the fawn-coloured water- brown like little deer
Metaphor- colour of foam= little deer which is brown
- water becomes brown when dirt + rocks are turned up as water
rushes down
6. Turns and twindles over Twindles= nonce- motions of the pool seem sinister
the broth Broth= Metaphor- stream which is dark + omnious= dark, meaty soup
because feeds the world with life-giving water
7. Of a pool so pitchblack, Pitchblack- stream is like thick soup-dark + deep
fell-frowning, Fell-frowning= personification- huge hills look down on water + create
shadows
- they seem to be frowning
- hills stand as guardians of water which can be cruel + ruthless
L6+7:
Alliteration- has same effect as onomatopoeia→ gloomy feeling together with swirling motions create
omnious effect
8. It rounds and rounds Rounds=Repetition- emphasises dark + gloomy feeling
Despair to drowning. - swirling motions produce omnious feeling- like drowning
Alliteration- emphasises shadows where water turns + turns + where
person could easily drown
Despair=Personification- speaker describes feeling of drowning to
despair
-Desperation→ once you are turning + turning + being pulled down- is
nothing you can do
 ~5~

l5-8:
Reference to dark, gloomy + sinister- create tone of hopelessness:
Linked to speaker’s state of mind
He= worried that nature will make way for factories + no one will bother to preserve nature for future
generations

9. Degged with dew, dappled Alliteration ‘d’- deliberate sound + slows down pace
with dew - indicates how stream has lost its urgency + is moving calmly through
heath + hilltops
Assonance- emphasises that leaves of heath plants have been clotted
with dew
Degged-spray of the waterfall wets plants
Emjambment- stresses that stream is flowing
10. Are the groins of the braes → personification/metaphor- stream= person passing through
that the brook treads narrow space slowly
through. - sides of steep bank through which the water travels are wet with dew
Groin- area between yhigh + abdomen
- here side of hills that are wet
11. Wiry heathpacks, flitches Heath- symbol of good luck
of fern.

12. And the beadbonny ash Metaphor- fruits on trees= beads

that sits over the burn. - ash tree made beautiful by orange berries
Sits= personification- ash tree is likened to a person sitting next to the
stream
L11+12:
Alliteration- makes pace slower + more deliberate→ stream is moving slower
Assonance- slows pace + lightens mood by mention of colour
Speaker’s state of mind→ seems at peace with himself + nature as he appreciates calm stream +
beautiful ash tree
- there is no trace of gloom + despair

13. What would be the world Enjambment- draws attention to rhetorical question l14
be, once bereft

14. Of wet and of wilderness? Rhetorical question- creates sense of uncertainty

Let them be left, - emphasises speaker’s desire for nature to be left alone
- what would life be without these places?
-Emphasises that nature should not be tampered with
 ~6~

15. O let them be left, Inversion- emphasises how important it is to preserve these natural
wildness and wet; places
o-sound→ long + creates tone of despair because he knows that
mankind is not going to fulfil his task
16. Long live the weeds and
the wilderness yet.

L13-16:
Alliteration- emphasises call to arms we all have a part to play in preservation of nature
Mood= anxiety += emphasised
Tone= triumph + passion- like battle cry poem ends with appeal to preserve nature
Irony→ poem was written 143 years ago- mankind has not listened
Questions:
1. Refer to line 2:
a. Identify the sound device used
b. Explain why the sound device is relevant
2. Refer to lines 6-8:
a. Identify the speaker’s tone
b. Why would the speaker use this tone in these lines?
3. Quote 1 word which shows that the water is a mixture of what the stream sweeps
along as it flows
4. Why is the following false?
- The word ‘degged’ shows that the speaker uses an American dialect
5. One of the themes is Appreciation of the natural environment. Discuss
6. The speaker manages to convince the reader that the natural world should be left
untouched. Discuss.