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The Windhover
The Windhover 1
I CAUGHT this morning morning’s minion 2, king-dom Of daylight’s dauphin 3, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, 4 5 in his riding Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, 6 how he rung 7 upon the rein 8 of a wimpling 9 wing
In his ecstasy! 01 then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate’s heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: 11 the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind. 21 My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird,—the achieve of; the mastery of the thing! 31
Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, 41 here
Buckle! 51 AND the fire that breaks from thee 61 then, a billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier! 71
No wonder of it: shéer plód 81 makes plough down sillion 91
Shine, 02 and blue-bleak embers, 12 ah my dear,
Fall, gall 22 themselves, and gash 32 gold-vermillion. 42 52
1 Windhover: A kind of kestrel or small hawk with red breast feathers and excellent ability to hover in the air while it scans the ground in search of prey.
3 Dauphin: The eldest son of the king of France from 1349 to 1830. Also it implies crown prince which seems to be more applicable in this poem.
4 Apparently, there are two possible ways of reading this part. An alternative which comes to mind is that the spotted falcon, most probably, because of the colors of its feathers, appears in the sky and the speaker can see that, however; another reading suggests a dawn sky of various colors, perhaps spotted with clouds, in which the falcon is framed and captured by the speaker's eyes.
5 The speaker observes the bird as the darling of the morning, the crown prince of the kingdom of daylight. It suggests that the bird is in fact so beautiful and gorgeous that it causes the dawn to love it. On the other hand, this poem is subtitled "To Christ our Lord" because the falcon reminds the poet of Christ; therefore, one can infer that the sky at dawn is the kingdom which is the place of authority and Christ is the inheritor of this power.
6 The air at dawn is rough and windy since the growing heat of the sun produces currents of warm rising air while the colder ones take their vacated place. This circulation of the air provides its difficulties for the falcon; nevertheless, he rides the rolling wind by keeping steady air beneath his wings implying that he moves vigorously as if he is passing over an obstruction.
7 Rung: To soar spirally in flight.
8 Rein: A long, narrow leather strap which is used to control horse or other animals. In this poem, it indicates that the falcon's flight is highly controlled resembling a knight on horseback.
9 Wimpling: Curving or quivering.
01 The falcon circles the air and soars. His flight is controlled similar to a knight whose hold on the rein is firm and steady. Its feathers wimple, or fold, to produce the graceful spiral in flight. Since the bird is at the height of his glory and grace, this occasion is considered as a moment which brings delight to him.
11 Ceasing to circle, the falcon launches himself again and starts turning in the sky in an exquisite, wide curving motion. The falcon's path bears a resemblance to an ice skater's heel which moves swiftly across the ice making a turn. In this poem, the falcon's gliding is likened to a skater's motion since both, skater and falcon, move smoothly (across the ice or over the wind) and maintain their balance skillfully.
21 Regarding to falcon's characteristic, it can hover in the air with its head to wind. In addition, the falcon is so small, compared to the big wind; thus, it moves with its forward propulsion to oppose the big wind, however, another alternative to be found for this part is that the falcon throws himself down when he encounters the wind as hinderer.
31 The speaker expresses that the bird's performance could stir his heart in hiding which denotes that the bird's achievement has wakened his heart and brought his heart back to him and back to the light which it has been already hidden from. Another possibility is that the speaker's heart is moved by the falcon's maneuver and accomplishment inside his chest.
41 Plume: Large, ornamental feather.
51 In the poem, this line can be read as both imperative and indicative. Also buckle is the verb here; it denotes either, to prepare self for a contest or undertaking an action (archaic: to buckle up for battle), or to collapse, however, collapse can be more appropriate since the intense reading of this line suggests that the speaker calls out to all that have inspired him: the rare beauty, the valor and action of the falcon. Also he calls all that challenge the falcon: the air, the pride which represents the natural dignity and purpose of the falcon, and the feathery plumes. The speaker tells them to "here buckle!" which implies that the falcon collapses, probably when he swoops down on his prey or when he suddenly dives to overpower the big wind as it has been described in number 12.
61 Thee: The objective case of thou (you).
71 In this part of the poem, the speaker directly addresses the falcon and asserts that when the falcon collapses, a bright red light resembling fire extrudes from him which is to a great extent, lovelier and more dangerous than the earlier mastery of natural forces that the kestrel had shown in his gliding. Accordingly, being broken in fire indicates power that can be attributed to Christ. Moreover, the falcon, which is Christ, is compared to chevalier that is the title of high honor for noble men showing qualities of high moral character and is connected to rein in the octave.
81 Plod: To work and act heavily and laboriously.
91 Sillion (Selion): Strip of land between furrows produced by the act of plowing.
02 The poet gives the image of an old rusty plow, that steadily brightens itself and the land it turns over. In other words, the plowshare shines when it is put to use in the act of plowing down the sillion tediously.
12Embers are smoldering and ashen covered coals in dying fire; therefore, they are pale and bleak-looking.
22 Gall: To damage or break the surface.
32 Gash: To make a long, deep wound.
42 Vermillion: A color between bright red and reddish orange also called Chinese red.
52 Although, the birds’ achievement and mastery is glorious but is not a wonder since one can observe other impressive instances in nature. Hard work of the plow can cause the corroded plowshare to shine or when the embers which are smoldering before dying fall and crack open there is an interior gold, red and orange light which extends out and is similar to the image of the falcon stoop which lets out a dazzling fire in the second stanza. In accordance with the symbolism lying beneath the surface of this poem, crucifixion comes to mind when Christ became radiant in sacrifice and death which is a billion times more graceful than performing beautiful actions in his life.
Analysis
The poem is one of the brilliant sonnets written by Gerard Manley Hopkins and follows the pattern of so many of his sonnets in which an experience or description leads to a set of moral reflections. In this poem, there is a sort of representational allusion to Christ. According to what the poem’s subtitle “To Christ our Lord” suggests, this poem is not merely about the experience of watching the windhover. Since the poet encounters the bird as an incarnated Christ, this whole experience of observing the bird in flight is a reflection of the glory of Christ’s life and resurrection; therefore, the poet praises the Lord by praising what he observes as a symbol for him, the windhover.
The octave is a detailed depiction of two distinct pictures. The poet creates a perceptible image of the falcon using descriptive words. Also symbolism is evident through the repetition of such words. Adjectives depict the Falcon as truly beautiful, unique, and authoritative. "...morning's minion," describes the falcon to be dearly loved and "daylight's dauphin" suggests that the kestrel is a prince of the sky. In addition, words such as "kingdom" and “reign” give the falcon vigor and in fact attribute the authority to Jesus. Throughout the first stanza, one can perceive plenty of emotional excitement. As the observer of the bird's flight, the poet writes emotionally in a line "My heart in hiding stirred for a bird..." implying that he is strongly impressed by this flight."Ecstasy" is another choice word to be found in the first stanza to additionally charge the poem with emotional excitement. From this word one can infer that there is an intense struggle between the bird on one hand and the wind on the other hand. In this struggle, the bird maintains his mastery over the wind, and from it he draws a feeling of ecstasy which can be conveyed to the watching speaker. "-ing" endings and their importance to the poem's rhyme scheme that occur in verbs, adjectives, and nouns in the octave are also considerable. Most probably, another intention for applying such words including "riding", "rolling", "striding", "swing", and "gliding" along with some others like "hurl", "sweep", and "rebuff" in the first stanza which focuses on the falcon's characteristic and maneuver, is to express movement. At the end of the first stanza, part of the beauty of the poem lies in the way that Hopkins integrates a masterful description of the experience of watching the bird’s performance and physical features with his own heart’s response to that experience.
However, the sestet puzzles many readers because it seems to diverge so widely from the material introduced in the octave. In the second stanza, the poem shifts into the present tense, takes a different stance on things and begins with a string of words. They come together to form an energized sentence to describes beauty, importance, and influence of the bird on the poet. "Oh" and "O," are two uses of the same word which are exclamations to add energy and emphasize emotion of the kestrel's flight. In addition, one can find in this stanza, the turning point (climax) of the poem. Two words, "buckle" and "AND" shift the poem's mood. After the word "buckle", one is connected to the following sentence that initiates with a capitalized "AND". Capitalization of "AND” emphasizes the importance of the action which takes place, “fire that breaks from thee then…”, which represents that the poet is emotionally moved through this transition. The word "dangerous" also suggests that the speaker is in awe of observing something resembling second coming of Jesus.
The third stanza opens in an image, which is not initially connected with the previous stanzas. It describes a plow that constantly brightens itself and the furrows it makes ("sillion") which can be related to Christ resurrection and coming back to life. The bird is compared to "embers", which has a definition containing religious overtone. The image of embers breaking open to reveal a smoldering interior, helps formulate the idea that there is a dazzling, luminous core to every individual that a religious life can expose it. Since these two aforementioned images are conceptually interwoven, one can find a religious connotation for plow as well. Furthermore, the word "gall" in the last line of the second tercet which conveys the meaning of wound, is combined with the final image in the sonnet that is "gash gold-vermillion". Hopkins uses this image so as to relate the concept back to the Christ's crucifixion and self-sacrifice. Accordingly, the word "gold" demonstrates that being broken in fire is the sign of glory and grandeur, not vulnerability.
Eventually, the confusing grammatical structures and sentence order in this sonnet contribute to its difficulty, but they also represent a masterful use of language. One can arrive at the conclusion that Hopkins applies his three-part structure in a sophisticated level and also compresses his message by reducing his structural message into smaller units each more potent than the previous one. The octave itself contains three parts. First, Hopkins emphasizes the dignity of the falcon. Subsequently, he mentions the struggle of the bird with the wind that requires the expenditure of a great amount of energy. Finally, Hopkins points out the success of this effort through the inspiring of the speaker. Hopkins begins the second stanza by expressing the glory of Christ. Additionally, the sacrifice is evident in the first tercet through which, Christ's eternal life which is irrefutably lovely for the believers and frightfully "dangerous" for the sinners can be inferred. In the second tercet, Hopkins uses two other earthly instances to draw attention to Christ's self-sacrifice and eternal shining which are conceptually connected to the previous stanza.
Alireza Haratikia
Date Posted: 1/17/2009
Number of Views: 231
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