Themes in The Sea and the Skylark
The octave is purely descriptive, giving detailed imagery of sea and skylark as Hopkins forms as precise an inscape of them as he can. It is left to the sestet to make a comment, this time in the form of an exclamation (l.9), rather than by posing a question (as in The Starlight Night or Spring).
The sestet sees the two things which, according to the Bible, were created by God, as shaming the man-made town which lies behind him. The town is a symbol of man's Fall from a much better, more innocent ‘prime'. There is heavy irony here as Hopkins picks up the theme of the ugliness of modern life, and compares it to the uniqueness and beauty of nature.
The irony springs from a further irony. Though Darwinism and Christianity are often seen as opposed, both agree that humankind is the highest form of development in the world. In the Bible, the Psalmist asks:
What is man that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet.' (
Psalms 8:4-6 AV)
However, to Hopkins, humanity's so-called progress is ‘towards man's first slime': in its superficiality, it is reversing down any so-called chain of evolution. As in Spring, he believes humankind's Paradise has been lost, and people have fallen away from the way God intended them to be.
- English Standard Version
- King James Version
1O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. 2Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. 3When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? 5Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. 6You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, 7all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, 8the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. 9O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
1O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. 2Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. 3When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; 4What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? 5For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. 6Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: 7All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; 8The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. 9O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!
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 Christian Bible consists of the Old Testament scriptures inherited from Judaism, together with the New Testament, drawn from writings produced from c.40-125CE, which describe the life of Jesus and the establishment of the Christian church.
The Bible describes God as the unique supreme being, creator and ruler of the universe.
Something which represents something else through an association of ideas.
The disobedience of Adam and Eve in the Bible is known as the Fall of Humankind. Christians believe that humans from then on have had a a predispostion to disobey God.
The beliefs, doctrines and practices of Christians.
The Christian Bible consists of the Old Testament scriptures inherited from Judaism, together with the New Testament, drawn from writings produced from c.40-125CE, which describe the life of Jesus and the establishment of the Christian church.
Author of one or more Psalms. The Book of Psalms contains 150 Hebrew poems or songs, many traditionally attributed to King David,on a variety of themes including praise, lament, pilgrimage and prayer for God's forgiveness.
A place of beauty and perfection, associated in the Bible and literature with both the Garden of Eden before the Fall, and heaven. Often used as a synonym for heaven.
