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
Themes / Imagery and symbolism in St. Alphonsus Rodriguez
Honour – visible and invisible
The octave divides neatly into two quatrains. The first recounts the usual mode of celebrating people: ‘Honour is flashed off exploit'. Hopkins' references to ‘strokes', ‘gashed flesh', ‘fighter, forge his glorious day' indicate external military celebrity.
The second quatrain deals with the renown of martyrdom, and of Christ himself, whose struggles to obey God regardless of the cost were internal and therefore invisible. Nevertheless, though invisible, spiritual warfare is regarded by Hopkins as very real and its victors usually worthy of the honour they receive: ‘on the martyr may'.
Drama and stillness
The tension comes in the sestet. Hopkins turns to how God seems to act:
- As Creator, he appears to do huge feats - ‘hews mountains' - on the one hand; on the other, minute, almost unnoticeable ones - ‘with trickling increment / Veins violets'. (Here Hopkins is perhaps referring to the debate about the theory of evolution which was challenging traditional Christian understanding: for Hopkins, everything was still under God's control.)
- So with the life of Christ: on the one hand there were, ‘Those years and years by of world without event', referring either to the historical period before Christ's birth, where 400 years had passed without a significant prophet, or to the first 30 years of Christ's own life where there is hardly anything recorded of him. On the other hand, ‘(God) Could crowd career with conquest', in Christ's short life or short ministry.
It is as though God's timescale and scale of operations is quite different from human expectations.
Humility honoured
So the question is raised: are those periods of apparent inactivity worthless? The canonisation of Alfonso gives Hopkins hope that human insignificance is not insignificant to God. And now the church has finally been able to see the divine worth of such an apparently humble life, a conclusion earlier Christian poets such as John Milton, in Lycidas, and George Herbert, in The Collar, had also struggled towards.
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.
A quatrain is a 4-line stanza, usually rhyming.
Some one who suffers for their beliefs or faith, typically by being killed.
Title (eventually used as name) given to Jesus, refering to an anointed person set apart for a special task such as a king.
The Bible describes God as the unique supreme being, creator and ruler of the universe.
1. Consisting of or relating to (the) spirit(s), rather than material or bodily form.
2. Relating to matters of the soul, faith, religion, or the supernatural.
3. A type of religious song whose roots are in the slave communities of North America.
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.
The Bible describes God as the unique supreme being, creator and ruler of the universe.
Literally, one who makes.
Title (eventually used as name) given to Jesus, refering to an anointed person set apart for a special task such as a king.
Someone who conveys God's message to human beings or speaks about the future sometimes through words alone, sometimes through dramatic actions.
The declaration that a deceased person should be honoured as a saint.
1. Term for a worshipping community of Christians.
2. The building in which Christians traditionally meet for worship.
3. The worldwide community of Christian believers.
The image of God on his throne in heaven surrounded by his angels and ministers to whom he makes announcements and where he may be petitioned.
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