Gerard Manley Hopkins, selected poems Contents
- As Kingfishers Catch Fire
- Binsey Poplars
- The Blessed Virgin Mary Compared to the Air We Breathe
- Carrion Comfort
- Duns Scotus' Oxford
- God's Grandeur
- Harry Ploughman
- Henry Purcell
- Hurrahing in Harvest
- Inversnaid
- I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark
- Synopsis of I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark
- Commentary on I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark
- Language and tone in I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark
- Structure and versification in I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark
- Imagery and symbolism in I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark
- Themes in I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark
- The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo
- Synopsis of The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo
- Commentary on The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo
- Language and tone in The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo
- Structure and versification in The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo
- Imagery and symbolism in The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo
- Themes in The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo
- The May Magnificat
- My Own Heart, Let Me Have More Pity On
- Synopsis of My Own Heart, Let Me Have More Pity On
- Commentary on My Own Heart, Let Me Have More Pity On
- Language and tone in My Own Heart, Let Me Have More Pity On
- Structure and versification in My Own Heart, Let Me Have More Pity On
- Imagery and symbolism in My Own Heart, Let Me Have More Pity On
- Themes in My Own Heart, Let Me Have More Pity On
- No Worst, There is None
- Patience, Hard Thing!
- Pied Beauty
- The Sea and the Skylark
- Spelt from Sibyl's Leaves
- Spring
- Spring and Fall
- St. Alphonsus Rodriguez
- The Starlight Night
- That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the Comfort of the Resurrection
- Synopsis of That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire
- Commentary on That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire
- Language and tone in That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire
- Structure and versification in That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire
- Imagery and symbolism in That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire
- Themes in That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire
- Thou Art Indeed Just, Lord
- Tom's Garland
- To Seem the Stranger
- To What Serves Mortal Beauty
- The Windhover
- The Wreck of the Deutschland
- Beauty and its purpose
- The beauty, variety and uniqueness of nature
- Christ's beauty
- Conservation and renewal of nature
- God's sovereignty
- The grace of ordinary life
- Mary as a channel of grace
- Nature as God's book
- Night, the dark night of the soul
- Serving God
- Suffering and faith
- The temptation to despair
- The ugliness of modern life
- Understanding evil in a world God has made
Synopsis of Hurrahing in Harvest
Inspiration
Hurrahing in Harvest is a sonnet written in 1877, whilst Hopkins was studying for the priesthood at St.Beuno's, North Wales. In a note he tells us how it was written: ‘The Hurrahing sonnet was the outcome of half an hour of extreme enthusiasm as I walked home alone one day from fishing in the Elwy', the Elwy being the river that flows through the Vale of Clwyd in which St.Beuno's is situated.
The poem is reminiscent of John Keats' Ode to Autumn. As with Keats, Hopkins gains an almost mystical experience, though, because Hopkins was a Christian, he expresses it much more in religious terms in trying to see God directly in the scene.
More on Keats: Keats, in a letter, describes a similar moment of intense pleasure in looking on the stubble fields whilst on holiday near Winchester. Hopkins' and Keats' poems must be set side by side as two of the best celebratory poems in the English language concerning autumn.
Textual notes
As in a slightly earlier sonnet, The Windhover, Hopkins' language and poetic rhythms are very complex and syncopated. The images, likewise, try to fix the scene exactly: to fix its inscape in the octave and, in the sestet, to work out its particular impression on the onlooker, its instress. The result is a complicated but very rewarding poem.
Investigating Hurrahing in Harvest
- Try to recall some autumn scenes you have seen.
- Can you remember the weather and the atmosphere?
A sonnet is a poem with a special structure. It has fourteen lines, which are organised in a particular manner, usually characterised by the pattern of rhyming, which changes as the ideas in the poem evolve.
Used for the seeking of direct spiritual encounter with God, usually through a life of self-denial and contemplation.
Name originally given to disciples of Jesus by outsiders and gradually adopted by the Early Church.
Rhythm is the musical effect of the repetition of stresses or beats, and the speed or tempo at which these may be read.
1. Imitation, copy, likeness, statue, picture in literature, art or imagination.
2. A figure of speech in which a person or object or happening is described in terms of some other person, object or action (i.e. as a metaphor or simile)
A term used by Gerard Manley Hopkins to denote the uniqueness of a person or piece of Nature, such as a landscape, a cloud formation or waves on the sea. It is the artist's trained perception to grasp this uniqueness of form and being.
The 8-line stanza of a Petrarchan sonnet, always occupying the first eight lines. It sometimes has a division halfway, creating two quatrains. It poses a problem or describes some single object or incident.
The 6-line stanza of a Petrarchan sonnet, occupying the last six lines, sometimes divided into tercets or couplets. It often resolves the problem posed in the octave or comments significantly on it.
A term invented by Gerard Manley Hopkins to denote the way an inscape impinges itself on the mind of the perceiver, and the emotional colouring produced.
Recently Viewed
Related material
Scan and go
Scan on your mobile for direct link.