humanities.lit.authors.shakespeare

On Feb 21, 8:27 pm, Lyra wrote:

(quote)

"The Windhover"


To Christ our Lord

I caught this morning morning's minion, king-
dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird,--the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!

Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!

No wonder of it: sheer plod makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.

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(quote, excerpts)

Summary

The windhover is a bird with the rare ability to hover in the air,
essentially flying in place while it scans the ground in search of
prey. The poet describes how he saw (or "caught") one of these birds
in the midst of its hovering. The bird strikes the poet as the darling
("minion") of the morning, the crown prince ("dauphin") of the kingdom
of daylight, drawn by the dappled colors of dawn. It rides the air as
if it were on horseback, moving with steady control like a rider whose
hold on the rein is sure and firm. In the poet's imagination, the
windhover sits high and proud, tightly reined in, wings quivering and
tense. Its motion is controlled and suspended in an ecstatic moment of
concentrated energy. Then, in the next moment, the bird is off again,
now like an ice skater balancing forces as he makes a turn. The bird,
first matching the wind's force in order to stay still, now "rebuff[s]
the big wind" with its forward propulsion. At the same moment, the
poet feels his own heart stir, or lurch forward out of "hiding," as it
were--moved by "the achieve of, the mastery of" the bird's
performance.

The opening of the sestet serves as both a further elaboration on the
bird's movement and an injunction to the poet's own heart. The
"beauty," "valour," and "act" (like "air," "pride," and "plume") "here
buckle." "Buckle" is the verb here; it denotes either a fastening
(like the buckling of a belt), a coming together of these different
parts of a creature's being, or an acquiescent collapse (like the
"buckling" of the knees), in which all parts subordinate themselves
into some larger purpose or cause. In either case, a unification takes
place. At the moment of this integration, a glorious fire issues
forth, of the same order as the glory of Christ's life and
crucifixion, though not as grand.


Commentary

(quote, excerpts)

The horse-and-rider metaphor with which Hopkins depicted the
windhover's motion now give way to the phrase "my chevalier"--a
traditional Medieval image of Christ as a knight on horseback, to
which the poem's subtitle (or dedication) gives the reader a clue.

The transition between octave and sestet comes with the statement in
lines 9-11 that the natural ("brute") beauty of the bird in flight is
but a spark in comparison with the glory of Christ, whose grandeur and
spiritual power are "a billion times told lovelier, more dangerous."


http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/hopkins/section2.rhtml

I LOVE this poem!

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> (quote)
>
> > The providence motif, the conviction that England was particularly
> > blessed to escape so many near-disasters
>
> (end of quote)
>
> `````````
>
> Providence
>
> (anagram)
>
> Proved nice
>
> `````````
>
> Providence
>
> Dice, proven?
>
> `````````
>
> Providence
>
> I'd Provence
>
> `````````
>
> Providence, I
>
> Video Prince
>
> `````````
>
> Providence
>
> Prince dove
>
> (made a dive)
>
> cf.
>
> The Windhover
>
> (Hopkins)
>
> ```````````````````