Pied Beauty (1877)

Complete Text Glory be to God for dappled things For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow; For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim; Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches wings; Landscape plotted and piecedfold, fallow, and plough; And ll tr des, their gear and tackle and trim! All things counter, original, spare, strange; "hate#er is fickle, freckled $who knows how%& "ith swift, slow; sweet, sour; ada''le, dim; (e fathers-forth whose beauty is past change) *raise (im! Summary +he poem opens with an offering) ,Glory be to God for dappled things!- .n the ne/t fi#e lines, (opkins elaborates with e/amples of what things he means to include under this rubric of ,dappled!- (e includes the mottled white and blue colors of the sky, the ,brinded- $brindled or streaked& hide of a cow, and the patches of contrasting color on a trout! +he chestnuts offer a slightly more comple/ image) "hen they fall they open to re#eal the meaty interior normally concealed by the hard shell; they are compared to the coals in a fire, black on the outside and glowing within! +he wings of finches are multicolored, as is a patchwork of farmland in which sections look different according to whether they are planted and green, fallow, or freshly plowed! +he final e/ample is of the ,trades- and acti#ities of man, with their rich di#ersity of materials and e0uipment!

.n the final fi#e lines, (opkins goes on to consider more closely the characteristics of these e/amples he has gi#en, attaching moral 0ualities now to the concept of #ariety and di#ersity that he has elaborated thus far mostly in terms of physical characteristics! +he poem becomes an apology for these uncon#entional or ,strange- things, things that might not normally be #alued or thought beautiful! +hey are all, he a#ers, creations of God, which, in their multiplicity, point always to the unity and permanence of (is power and inspire us to ,*raise (im!Form +his is one of (opkinss ,curtal- $or curtailed& sonnets, in which he miniaturi'es the traditional sonnet form by reducing the eight lines of the octa#e to si/ $here two tercets rhyming ABC ABC& and shortening the si/ lines of the sestet to four and a half! +his alteration of the sonnet form is 0uite fitting for a poem ad#ocating originality and contrariness! +he strikingly musical repetition of sounds throughout the poem $,dappled,,stipple,- ,tackle,- ,fickle,- ,freckled,- ,ada''le,- for e/ample& enacts the creati#e act

the poem glorifies) the wea#ing together of di#erse things into a pleasing and coherent whole! Commentary +his poem is a miniature or set-piece, and a kind of ritual obser#ance! .t begins and ends with #ariations on the mottoes of the 1esuit order $,to the greater glory of God- and ,praise to God always-&, which gi#e it a traditional fla#or, tempering the unorthodo/y of its appreciations! +he parallelism of the beginning and end correspond to a larger symmetry within the poem) the first part $the shortened octa#e& begins with God and then mo#es to praise his creations! +he last four-and-a-half lines re#erse this mo#ement, beginning with the characteristics of things in the world and then tracing them back to a final affirmation of God! +he delay of the #erb in this e/tended sentence makes this return all the more satisfying when it comes; the long and list-like predicate, which captures the multiplicity of the created world, at last yields in the penultimate line to a striking #erb of creation $fathers-forth& and then leads us to acknowledge an absolute sub2ect, God the 3reator! +he poem is thus a hymn of creation, praising God by praising the created world! .t e/presses the theological position that the great #ariety in the natural world is a testimony to the perfect unity of God and the infinitude of (is creati#e power! .n the conte/t of a 4ictorian age that #alued uniformity, efficiency, and standardi'ation, this theological notion takes on a tone of protest! "hy does (opkins choose to commend ,dappled things- in particular% +he first stan'a would lead the reader to belie#e that their significance is an aesthetic one) .n showing how contrasts and 2u/tapositions increase the richness of our surroundings, (opkins describes #ariations in color and te/tureof the sensory! +he mention of the ,freshfirecoal chestnut-falls- in the fourth line, howe#er, introduces a moral tenor to the list! +hough the description is still physical, the idea of a nugget of goodness imprisoned within a hard e/terior in#ites a consideration of essential value in a way that the speckles on a cow, for e/ample, do not! +he image transcends the physical, implying how the physical links to the spiritual and meditating on the relationship between body and soul! Lines fi#e and si/ then ser#e to connect these musings to human life and acti#ity! (opkins first introduces a landscape whose characteristics deri#e from mans alteration $the fields&, and then includes ,trades,- ,gear,- ,tackle,- and ,trim- as di#erse items that are man-made! 5ut he then goes on to include these things, along with the preceding list, as part of Gods work! (opkins does not refer e/plicitly to human beings themsel#es, or to the #ariations that e/ist among them, in his catalogue of the dappled and di#erse! 5ut the ne/t section opens with a list of 0ualities $,counter, original, spare, strange-& which, though they doggedly refer to ,things- rather than people, cannot but be considered in moral terms as well; (opkinss own life, and particularly his poetry, had at the time been described in those #ery terms! "ith ,fickle- and ,freckled- in the eighth line, (opkins introduces a moral and an aesthetic 0uality, each of which would con#entionally con#ey a negati#e 2udgment, in order to fold e#en the base and the ugly back into his worshipful in#entory of Gods gloriously ,pied- creation!

The Windhover
Complete Text +o 3hrist our Lord . caught this morning mornings minion, kingdom of daylights dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding 6f the rolling le#el underneath him steady air, and striding (igh there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing .n his ecstasy7 then off, off forth on swing, As a skates heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend) the hurl and gliding 8ebuffed the big wind! 9y heart in hiding :tirred for a bird,the achie#e of, the mastery of the thing7 5rute beauty and #alour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here 5uckle7 A;< the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion +imes told lo#elier, more dangerous, 6 my che#alier7 ;o wonder of it) sheer plod makes plough down sillion :hine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear, Fall, gall themsel#es, and gash gold-#ermillion! Summary +he windho#er is a bird with the rare ability to ho#er in the air, essentially flying in place while it scans the ground in search of prey! +he poet describes how he saw $or ,caught-& one of these birds in the midst of its ho#ering! +he 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! .t rides the air as if it were on horseback, mo#ing with steady control like a rider whose hold on the rein is sure and firm! .n the poets imagination, the windho#er sits high and proud, tightly reined in, wings 0ui#ering and tense! .ts motion is controlled and suspended in an ecstatic moment of concentrated energy! +hen, in the ne/t moment, the bird is off again, now like an ice skater balancing forces as he makes a turn! +he bird, first matching the winds 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 weremo#ed by ,the achie#e of, the mastery of- the birds performance!

+he opening of the sestet ser#es as both a further elaboration on the birds mo#ement and an in2unction to the poets own heart! +he ,beauty,- ,#alour,- and ,act- $like ,air,,pride,- and ,plume-& ,here buckle!- ,5uckle- is the #erb here; it denotes either a fastening $like the buckling of a belt&, a coming together of these different parts of a creatures being, or an ac0uiescent collapse $like the ,buckling- of the knees&, in which

all parts subordinate themsel#es into some larger purpose or cause! .n 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 3hrists life and crucifi/ion, though not as grand! Form +he confusing grammatical structures and sentence order in this sonnet contribute to its difficulty, but they also represent a masterful use of language! (opkins blends and confuses ad2ecti#es, #erbs, and sub2ects in order to echo his theme of smooth merging) the birds perfect immersion in the air, and the fact that his self and his action are inseparable! ;ote, too, how important the ,-ing- ending is to the poems rhyme scheme; it occurs in #erbs, ad2ecti#es, and nouns, linking the different parts of the sentences together in an intense unity! A great number of #erbs are packed into a short space of lines, as (opkins tries to nail down with as much descripti#e precision as possible the e/act character of the birds motion! ,+he "indho#er- is written in ,sprung rhythm,- a meter in which the number of accents in a line are counted but the number of syllables does not matter! +his techni0ue allows (opkins to #ary the speed of his lines so as to capture the birds pausing and racing! Listen to the ho#ering rhythm of ,the rolling le#el underneath him steady air,- and the arched brightness of ,and striding high there!- +he poem slows abruptly at the end, pausing in awe to reflect on 3hrist! Commentary +his poem follows the pattern of so many of (opkinss sonnets, in that a sensuous e/perience or description leads to a set of moral reflections! *art of the beauty of the poem lies in the way (opkins integrates his masterful description of a birds physical feat with an account of his own hearts response at the end of the first stan'a! (owe#er, the sestet has pu''led many readers because it seems to di#erge so widely from the material introduced in the octa#e! At line nine, the poem shifts into the present tense, away from the recollection of the bird! +he horse-and-rider metaphor with which (opkins depicted the windho#ers motion now gi#e way to the phrase ,my che#alier-a traditional 9edie#al image of 3hrist as a knight on horseback, to which the poems subtitle $or dedication& gi#es the reader a clue! +he transition between octa#e and sestet comes with the statement in lines ?-@@ that the natural $,brute-& beauty of the bird in flight is but a spark in comparison with the glory of 3hrist, whose grandeur and spiritual power are ,a billion times told lo#elier, more dangerous!+he first sentence of the sestet can read as either descripti#e or imperati#e, or both! +he idea is that something glorious happens when a beings physical body, will, and action are all brought into accordance with Gods will, culminating in the perfect selfe/pression! (opkins, reali'ing that his own heart was ,in hiding,- or not fully committed to its own purpose, draws inspiration from the birds perfectly self-contained, selfreflecting action! 1ust as the ho#ering is the action most distincti#e and self-defining for the windho#er, so spiritual stri#ing is mans most essential aspect! At moments when

humans arri#e at the fullness of their moral nature, they achie#e something great! 5ut that greatness necessarily pales in comparison with the ultimate act of self-sacrifice performed by 3hrist, which ne#ertheless ser#es as our model and standard for our own beha#ior!

+he final tercet within the sestet declares that this phenomenon is not a ,wonder,- but rather an e#eryday occurrencepart of what it means to be human! +his stri#ing, far from e/hausting the indi#idual, ser#es to bring out his or her inner glowmuch as the daily use of a metal plow, instead of wearing it down, actually polishes itcausing it to sparkle and shine! +he suggestion is that there is a glittering, luminous core to e#ery indi#idual, which a concerted religious life can e/pose! +he subse0uent image is of embers breaking open to re#eal a smoldering interior! (opkins words this image so as to relate the concept back to the 3rucifi/ion) +he #erb ,gash- $which doubles for ,gush-& suggests the wounding of 3hrists body and the shedding of his ,gold-#ermilion- blood!

od!"

randeur (1877)

Complete Text +he world is charged with the grandeur of God! .t will flame out, like shining from shook foil; .t gathers to a greatness, like the oo'e of oil 3rushed! "hy do men then now not reck his rod% Generations ha#e trod, ha#e trod, ha#e trod; And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil; And wears mans smudge and shares mans smell) the soil .s bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod! And for all this, nature is ne#er spent; +here li#es the dearest freshness deep down things; And though the last lights off the black "est went 6h, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs 5ecause the (oly Ghost o#er the bent "orld broods with warm breast and with ah7 bright wings! Summary +he first four lines of the octa#e $the first eight-line stan'a of an .talian sonnet& describe a natural world through which Gods presence runs like an electrical current, becoming momentarily #isible in flashes like the refracted glintings of light produced by metal foil when rumpled or 0uickly mo#ed! Alternati#ely, Gods presence is a rich oil, a kind of sap that wells up ,to a greatness- when tapped with a certain kind of patient pressure! Gi#en these clear, strong proofs of Gods presence in the world, the poet asks how it is that humans fail to heed $,reck-& (is di#ine authority $,his rod-&!

+he second 0uatrain within the octa#e describes the state of contemporary human life the blind repetiti#eness of human labor, and the sordidness and stain of ,toil- and ,trade!+he landscape in its natural state reflects God as its creator; but industry and the prioriti'ation of the economic o#er the spiritual ha#e transformed the landscape, and robbed humans of their sensiti#ity to the those few beauties of nature still left! +he shoes people wear se#er the physical connection between our feet and the earth they walk on, symboli'ing an e#er-increasing spiritual alienation from nature! +he sestet $the final si/ lines of the sonnet, enacting a turn or shift in argument& asserts that, in spite of the fallenness of (opkinss contemporary 4ictorian world, nature does not cease offering up its spiritual indices! *ermeating the world is a deep ,freshness- that testifies to the continual renewing power of Gods creation! +his power of renewal is seen in the way morning always waits on the other side of dark night! +he source of this constant regeneration is the grace of a God who ,broods- o#er a seemingly lifeless world with the patient nurture of a mother hen! +his final image is one of God guarding the potential of the world and containing within (imself the power and promise of rebirth! "ith the final e/clamation $,ah7 bright wings-& (opkins suggests both an awed intuition of the beauty of Gods grace, and the 2oyful suddenness of a hatchling bird emerging out of Gods lo#ing incubation! Form +his poem is an .talian sonnetit contains fourteen lines di#ided into an octa#e and a sestet, which are separated by a shift in the argumentati#e direction of the poem! +he meter here is not the ,sprung rhythm- for which (opkins is so famous, but it does #ary somewhat from the iambic pentameter lines of the con#entional sonnet! For e/ample, (opkins follows stressed syllable with stressed syllable in the fourth line of the poem, bolstering the urgency of his 0uestion) ,"hy do men then now not reck his rod%:imilarly, in the ne/t line, the hea#y, falling rhythm of ,ha#e trod, ha#e trod, ha#e trod,coming after the 0uick lilt of ,generations,- recreates the sound of plodding footsteps in striking onomatopoeia! Commentary +he poem begins with the surprising metaphor of Gods grandeur as an electric force! +he figure suggests an undercurrent that is not always seen, but which builds up a tension or pressure that occasionally flashes out in ways that can be both brilliant and dangerous! +he optical effect of ,shook foil- is one e/ample of this brilliancy! +he image of the oil being pressed out of an oli#e represents another kind of richness, where saturation and built-up pressure e#entually culminate in a salubrious o#erflow! +he image of electricity makes a subtle return in the fourth line, where the ,rod- of Gods punishing power calls to mind the lightning rod in which e/cess electricity in the atmosphere will occasionally ,flame out!- (opkins carefully chooses this comple/ of images to link the secular and scientific to mystery, di#inity, and religious tradition! Alectricity was an area of much scientific interest during (opkinss day, and is an e/ample of a phenomenon that had long been taken as an indication of di#ine power but which was now e/plained in

naturalistic, rational terms! (opkins is defiantly affirmati#e in his assertion that Gods work is still to be seen in nature, if men will only concern themsel#es to look! 8efusing to ignore the disco#eries of modern science, he takes them as further e#idence of Gods grandeur rather than a challenge to it! (opkinss awe at the optical effects of a piece of foil attributes re#elatory power to a man-made ob2ect; gold-leaf foil had also been used in recent influential scientific e/periments! +he oli#e oil, on the other hand, is an ancient sacramental substance, used for centuries for food, medicine, lamplight, and religious purposes! +his oil thus traditionally appears in all aspects of life, much as God suffuses all branches of the created uni#erse! 9oreo#er, the slowness of its oo'ing contrasts with the 0uick electric flash; the method of its e/traction implies such spiritual 0ualities as patience and faith! $5y including this description (opkins may ha#e been implicitly critici'ing the #iolence and rapaciousness with which his contemporaries drilled petroleum oil to fuel industry!& +hus both the images of the foil and the oli#e oil bespeak an all-permeating di#ine presence that re#eals itself in intermittent flashes or droplets of brilliance! (opkinss 0uestion in the fourth line focuses his readers on the present historical moment; in considering why men are no longer God-fearing, the emphasis is on ,now!+he answer is a comple/ one! +he second 0uatrain contains an indictment of the way a cultures neglect of God translates into a neglect of the en#ironment! 5ut it also suggests that the abuses of pre#ious generations are partly to blame; they ha#e soiled and ,searedour world, further hindering our ability to access the holy! Bet the sestet affirms that, in spite of the interdependent deterioration of human beings and the earth, God has not withdrawn from either! (e possesses an infinite power of renewal, to which the regenerati#e natural cycles testify! +he poem reflects (opkinss con#iction that the physical world is like a book written by God, in which the attenti#e person can always detect signs of a bene#olent authorship, and which can help mediate human beings contemplation of this Author!

Theme"# $oti%" and Sym&ol"

Theme"

The Manifestation of God in Nature

(opkins used poetry to e/press his religious de#otion, drawing his images from the natural world! (e found nature inspiring and de#eloped his theories of inscape and instress to e/plore the manifestation of God in e#ery li#ing thing! According to these theories, the recognition of an ob2ects uni0ue identity, which was bestowed upon that ob2ect by God, brings us closer to 3hrist! :imilarly, the beauty of the natural worldand our appreciation of that beautyhelps us worship God! 9any poems, including ,(urrahing in (ar#est- and ,+he "indho#er,- begin with the speaker praising an aspect of nature, which then leads the speaker into a consideration of an aspect of God or 3hrist! For instance, in ,+he :tarlight ;ight,- the speaker urges readers to notice the mar#els of the night sky and compares the sky to a structure, which houses 3hrist, his mother, and the saints! +he stars link to 3hristianity makes them more beautiful!

The Regenerative Power of Nature

(opkinss early poetry praises nature, particularly natures uni0ue ability to regenerate and re2u#enate! +hroughout his tra#els in Angland and .reland, (opkins witnessed the detrimental effects of industriali'ation on the en#ironment, including pollution, urbani'ation, and diminished rural landscapes! "hile he lamented these effects, he also belie#ed in natures power of regeneration, which comes from God! .n ,Gods Grandeur,- the speaker notes the wellspring that runs through nature and through humans! "hile (opkins ne#er doubted the presence of God in nature, he became increasingly depressed by late nineteenth-century life and began to doubt natures ability to withstand human destruction! (is later poems, the so-called terrible sonnets, focus on images of death, including the har#est and #ultures picking at prey! 8ather than depict the glory of natures rebirth, these poems depict the deaths that must occur in order for the cycle of nature to continue! ,+hou Art .ndeed 1ust, Lord- $@CC?& uses parched roots as a metaphor for despair) the speaker begs 3hrist to help him because 3hrists lo#e will re2u#enate him, 2ust as water helps re2u#enate dying foliage! $oti%"

Colors
According to (opkinss theory of inscape, all li#ing things ha#e a constantly shifting design or pattern that gi#es each ob2ect a uni0ue identity! (opkins fre0uently uses color to describe these inscapes! ,*ied 5eauty- praises God for gi#ing e#ery ob2ect a distinct #isual pattern, from sunlight as multicolored as a cow to the beauty of birds wings and freshly plowed fields! .ndeed, the word pied means ,ha#ing splotches of two or more colors!- .n ,(urrahing in (ar#est,- the speaker describes ,a'ourous hung hills- $?& that are ,#ery-#iolet-sweet- $@D&! Alsewhere, the use of color to describe nature becomes more complicated, as in ,:pring!- 8ather than 2ust call the birds eggs ,blue,- the speaker describes them as resembling pieces of the sky and thus demonstrates the interlocking order of ob2ects in the natural world! .n ,+he "indho#er,- the speaker yokes ad2ecti#es to con#ey the peculiar, precise beauty of the bird in flightand to con#ey the idea that natures colors are so magnificent that they re0uire new combinations of words in order to be imagined!

Ecstatic, Transcendent Moments

9any of (opkinss poems feature an ecstatic outcry, a moment at which the speaker e/presses his transcendence of the real world into the spiritual world! +he words ah, o, and oh usually signal the point at which the poem mo#es from a description of natures beauty to an o#ert e/pression of religious sentiment! ,5insey *oplars- $@CE?&, a poem about the destruction of a forest, begins with a description of the downed trees but switches dramatically to a lamentation about the human role in the de#astation; (opkins signals the switch by not only beginning a new stan'a but also by beginning the line with ,6- $?&! (opkins also uses e/clamation points and appositi#es to articulate ecstasy) in

,3arrion 3omfort,- the speaker concludes with two cries to 3hrist, one enclosed in parentheses and punctuated with an e/clamation point and the other punctuated with a period! +he words and the punctuation alert the reader to the instant at which the poem shifts from secular concerns to religious feeling!

Bold Musicality
+o e/press inscape and instress, (opkins e/perimented with rhythm and sound to create sprung rhythm, a distinct musicality that resembles the patterns of natural speech in Anglish! +he fle/ible meter allowed (opkins to con#ey the fast, swooping falcon in ,+he "indho#er- and the slow mo#ement of hea#y clouds in ,(urrahing in (ar#est!- +o indicate how his lines should be read aloud, (opkins often marked words with acute accents, as in ,As Fingfishers 3atch Fire- and ,:pring and Fall!- 'lliteration, or the 2u/taposition of similar sounds, links form with content, as in this line from ,Gods Grandeur-) ,And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil- $G&! .n the act of repeating ,red,- our mouths make a long, low sound that resembles the languid mo#ements of humans made tired from factory labor! Alsewhere, the alliterati#e lines become another way of worshiping the di#ine because the sounds roll and bump together in pleasure! ,:pring- begins, ,;othing is so beautiful as :pring H "hen weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lo#ely and lush- $@IJ&! Sym&ol"

Birds
5irds appear throughout (opkinss poetry, fre0uently as stand-ins for God and 3hrist! .n ,+he "indho#er,- a poem dedicated to 3hrist, the speaker watches a falcon flying through the sky and finds traces of 3hrist in its flight path! +he beauty of the bird causes the speaker to reflect on the beauty of 3hrist because the speaker sees a di#ine imprint on all li#ing things! :imilarly, ,As Fingfishers 3atch Fire- meditates on the innate beha#iors and patterns of beings in the uni#erse) the inscape of birds manifests in their flights, much as the inscape of stone manifests in the sound of flowing water! 3hrist appears e#erywhere in these inscape manifestations! .n 3hristian iconography, birds ser#e as reminders that there is life away from earth, in hea#enand the (oly Ghost is often represented as a do#e! ,Gods Grandeur- portrays the (oly Ghost literally, as a bird big enough to brood o#er the entire world, protecting all its inhabitants!

Fire
(opkins uses images of fire to symboli'e the passion behind religious feeling, as well as to symboli'e God and 3hrist! .n ,Gods Grandeur,- (opkins compares the glory of God and the beautiful bounty of his world to fire, a miraculous presence that warms and beguiles those nearby! (e links fire and 3hrist in ,+he "indho#er,- as the speaker sees a flame burst at the e/act moment in which he reali'es that the falcon contains 3hrist! Likewise, ,As Fingfishers 3atch Fire- uses the phrase ,catch fire- as a metaphor for the

birds manifestation of the di#ine imprint, or inscape, in their natural beha#ior! .n that poem too, the dragonflies ,draw flame- $@&, or create light, to show their distinct identities as li#ing things! ;atures firelightningappears in other poems as a way of demonstrating the innate signs of God and 3hrist in the natural world) God and 3hrist appear throughout nature, regardless of whether humans are there to witness their appearances!

Trees
+rees appear in (opkinss poems to dramati'e the earthly effects of time and to show the detrimental effects of humans on nature! .n ,:pring and Fall,- the changing seasons become a metaphor for maturation, aging, and the life cycle, as the speaker e/plains death to a young girl) all mortal things die, 2ust as all deciduous trees lose their lea#es! .n ,5insey *oplars,- the speaker mourns the loss of a forest from human destruction, then urges readers to be mindful of damaging the natural world! 3utting down a tree becomes a metaphor for the larger destruction being enacted by nineteenth-century urbani'ation and industriali'ation! +rees help make an area more beautiful, but they do not manifest God or 3hrist in the same way as animate ob2ects, such as animals or humans!

Sprin( and Fall (188))

Complete Text +o a young child 9argaret, are you grie#ing 6#er Goldengro#e unlea#ing% Lea#es, like the things of man, you "ith your fresh thoughts care for, can you% Ah7 as the heart grows older .t will come to such sights colder 5y and by, nor spare a sigh +hough worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie; And yet you will weep know why! ;ow no matter, child, the name) :orrows springs are the same! ;or mouth had, no nor mind, e/pressed "hat heart heard of, ghost guessed) .t is the blight man was born for, .t is 9argaret you mourn for! Summary +he poem opens with a 0uestion to a child) ,9argaret, are you grie#ing H 6#er Goldengro#e unlea#ing%- ,Goldengro#e,- a place whose name suggests an idyllic playworld, is ,unlea#ing,- or losing its lea#es as winter approaches! And the child, with her

,fresh thoughts,- cares about the lea#es as much as about ,the things of man!- +he speaker reflects that age will alter this innocent response, and that later whole ,worlds- of forest will lie in leafless disarray $,leafmeal,- like ,piecemeal-& without arousing 9argarets sympathy! +he child will weep then, too, but for a more conscious reason! (owe#er, the source of this knowing sadness will be the same as that of her childish grief for ,sorrows springs are the same!- +hat is, though neither her mouth nor her mind can yet articulate the fact as clearly as her adult self will, 9argaret is already mourning o#er her own mortality! Form

+his poem has a lyrical rhythm appropriate for an address to a child! .n fact, it appears that (opkins began composing a musical accompaniment to the #erse, though no copy of it remains e/tant! +he lines form couplets and each line has four beats, like the characteristic ballad line, though they contain an irregular number of syllables! +he singsong effect this creates in the first eight lines is complicated into something more uneasy in the last se#en; the rhymed triplet at the center of the poem creates a pi#ot for this change! (opkins ,sprung rhythm- meter $see the Analysis section of this :park;ote for more on ,sprung rhythm-& lets him orchestrate the 2u/tapositions of stresses in unusual ways! (e sometimes incorporates pauses, like musical rests, in places where we would e/pect a syllable to separate two stresses $for e/ample, after ,9argaret- in the first line and ,Lea#es- in the third&! At other times he lets the stresses stand together for emphasis, as in ,will weep- and ,ghost guessed-; the alliteration here contributes to the emphatic slowing of the rhythm at these most earnest and dramatic points in the poem! Commentary +he title of the poem in#ites us to associate the young girl, 9argaret, in her freshness, innocence, and directness of emotion, with the springtime! (opkinss choice of the American word ,fall- rather than the 5ritish ,autumn- is deliberate; it links the idea of autumnal decline or decay with the biblical Fall of man from grace! +hat primordial episode of loss initiated human mortality and suffering; in contrast, the life of a young child, as (opkins suggests $and as so many poets ha#e before himparticularly the 8omantics&, appro/imates the Adenic state of man before the Fall! 9argaret li#es in a state of harmony with nature that allows her to relate to her paradisal ,Goldengro#e- with the same sympathy she bears for human beings or, put more cynically, for ,the things of man!9argaret e/periences an emotional crisis when confronted with the fact of death and decay that the falling lea#es represent! "hat interests the speaker about her grief is that it represents such a singular $and precious& phase in the de#elopment of a human beings understanding about death and loss; only because 9argaret has already reached a certain le#el of maturity can she feel sorrow at the onset of autumn! +he speaker knows what she does not, namely, that as she grows older she will continue to e/perience this same grief, but with more self-consciousness about its real meaning $,you will weep, and know

why-&, and without the same mediating $and admittedly endearing& sympathy for inanimate ob2ects $,nor spare a sigh, H +hough worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie-&! +his eighth line is perhaps one of the most beautiful in all of (opkinss work) +he word ,worlds- suggests a de#astation and decline that spreads without end, well beyond the bounds of the little ,Goldengro#e- that seems so #ast and significant to a childs perception! Loss is basic to the human e/perience, and it is absolute and all-consuming! ,"anwood- carries the suggestion of pallor and sickness in the word ,wan,- and also pro#ides a nice description of the fading colors of the earth as winter dormancy approaches! +he word ,leafmeal,- which (opkins coined by analogy with ,piecemeal,e/presses with poignancy the sense of wholesale ha#oc with which the sight of strewn fallen lea#es might strike a nai#e and sensiti#e mind! .n the final, and hea#iest, mo#ement of the poem, (opkins goes on to identify what this sorrow is that 9argaret feels and will, he assures us, continue to feel, although in different ways! +he statement in line @@ that ,:orrows springs are the same- suggests not only that all sorrows ha#e the same source, but also that 9argaret, who is associated with springtime, represents a stage all people go through in coming to understand mortality and loss! "hat is so remarkable about this stage is that while the ,mouthcannot say what the grief is for, nor the mind e#en articulate it silently, a kind of understanding ne#ertheless materiali'es! .t is a whisper to the heart, something ,guessedat by the ,ghost- or spirita purely intuiti#e notion of the fact that all grie#ing points back to the self) to ones own suffering of losses, and ultimately to ones own mortality! +hough the narrators tone toward the child is tender and sympathetic, he does not try to comfort her! ;or are his reflections really addressed to her because they are beyond her le#el of understanding! "e suspect that the poet has at some point gone through the same ruminations that he now obser#es in 9argaret; and that his once-intuiti#e grief then led to these more conscious reflections! (er way of confronting loss is emotional and #ague; his is philosophical, poetical, and generali'ing, and we see that this is his more matureand ,colder-way of likewise mourning for his own mortality!

Bin"ey Poplar" (187*)

Complete Text 9y aspens dear, whose airy cages 0uelled, Kuelled or 0uenched in lea#es the leaping sun, All felled, felled, are all felled; 6f a fresh and following folded rank ;ot spared, not one +hat dandled a sandalled :hadow that swam or sank 6n meadow and ri#er and wind-wandering weed-winding bank! 6 if we but knew what we do "hen we del#e or hew (ack and rack the growing green7

:ince country is so tender +o touch, her being so slender, +hat, like this sleek and seeing ball 5ut a prick will make no eye at all, "here we, e#en where we mean +o mend her we end her, "hen we hew or del#e) After-comers cannot guess the beauty been! +en or twel#e, only ten or twel#e :trokes of ha#oc unsel#e +he sweet especial scene, 8ural scene, a rural scene, :weet especial rural scene! Summary +he poet mourns the cutting of his ,aspens dear,- trees whose delicate beauty resided not only in their appearance, but in the way they created ,airy cages- to tame the sunlight! +hese lo#ely trees, (opkins laments, ha#e all been ,felled!- (e compares them to an army of soldiers obliterated! (e remembers mournfully the way they their ,sandalledshadows played along the winding bank where ri#er and meadow met!

(opkins grie#es o#er the wholesale destruction of the natural world, which takes place because people fail to reali'e the implications of their actions! +o ,del#e or hew- $dig, as in mining, or chop down trees& is to treat the earth too harshly, for ,country- is something ,so tender- that the least damage can change it irre#ocably! +he poet offers as an analogy the pricking of an eyeball, an organ whose mechanisms are subtle and powerful, though the tissues are infinitely delicate) to prick it e#en slightly changes it completely from what it was to something unrecogni'able $and useless&! .ndeed, e#en an action that is meant to be beneficial can affect the landscape in this way, (opkins says! +he earth held beauties before our time that ,after-comers- will ha#e no idea of, since they are now lost fore#er! .t takes so little $only ,ten or twel#e strokes-& to ,unsel#e- the landscape, or alter it so completely that it is no longer itself! Form +his poem is written in ,sprung rhythm,- the inno#ati#e metric form de#eloped by (opkins! .n sprung rhythm the number of accents in a line are counted, but the number of syllables are not! +he result, in this poem, is that (opkins is able to group accented syllables together, creating striking onomatopoeic effects! .n the third line, for e/ample, the hea#y recurrence of the accented words ,all- and ,felled- strike the ear like the blows of an a/ on the tree trunks! (owe#er, in the final three lines the repetition of phrases works differently! (ere the techni0ue achie#es a more wistful and song-like 0uality; the chanted phrase ,sweet especial rural scene- e#okes the numb incomprehension of grief and the unwillingness of a berea#ed heart to let go! +his poem offers a good e/ample of

the way (opkins chooses, alters, and in#ents words with a #iew to the sonorousness of his poems! (ere, he uses ,dandled- $instead of a more familiar word such as ,dangled-& to create a rhyme with ,sandalled- and to echo the consonants in the final three lines of the stan'a! Commentary +his poem is a dirge for a landscape that (opkins had known intimately while studying at 6/ford! (opkins here recapitulates the ideas e/pressed in some of his earlier poems about the indi#iduality of the natural ob2ect and the idea that its #ery being is a kind of e/pression! (opkins refers to this e/pression as ,sel#ing,- and maintains that this ,sel#ing- is ultimately always an e/pression of God, his creati#e power! +he word appears here $as ,unsel#es-&, and also in ,As Fingfishers 3atch Fire!- (ere, (opkins emphasi'es the fragility of the self or the sel#ing) A#en a slight alteration can cause a thing to cease to be what it most essentially is! .n describing the beauty of the aspens, (opkins focuses on the way they interact with and affect the space and atmosphere around them, changing the 0uality of the light and contributing to the elaborate natural patterning along the bank of the ri#er! 5ecause of these interrelations, felling a gro#e not only eradicates the trees, but also ,unsel#es- the whole countryside! +he poem likens the line of trees to a rank of soldiers! +he military image implies that the industrial de#elopment of the countryside e0uals a kind of $too often unrecogni'ed& warfare! +he natural cur#es and winding of the ri#er bank contrast with the rigid linearity of man-made arrangements of ob2ects, a rigidity implied by the soldiers marching in formation! (opkins points out how the narrow-minded priorities of an age bent on standardi'ation and regularity contributes to an obliteration of beauty! ;ature allows both lines and cur#es, and lets them interplay in infinitely comple/ and subtle ways; the line of trees, while also straight and orderly like soldiers, ne#ertheless follows the cur#e of the ri#er, so that their ,rank- is ,following- and ,folded,- caught up in intricate interrelations rather than being merely rigid, efficient, and abstract! .ts shadows, which are crosshatched like sandal straps and constantly changing, offer another e/ample of the patterning of nature! +his passage e/presses something of what (opkins means by the word ,inscape-) the notion of ,inscape- refers both to an ob2ects perfect indi#idualism and to the ob2ects possession of an internal order go#erning its ,sel#ing- and connecting it to other ob2ects in the world! $For more on (opkinss notion of ,inscape,- see the commentary on ,As Fingfishers 3atch Fire, <ragonflies <raw Flame!-& +he pricked eyeball makes a startling and painful image; in case the readers ha#e not yet shared (opkinss acute pain o#er the felled poplars, the poet makes sure we cringe now! +he image suggests that when the trees disappear from sight, the ramifications are as tragic as the loss of our #ery organ of #ision! +he implication is that we are harmed as much as the landscape; (opkins wants us to feel this as a real loss to oursel#es! ;ot only will the landscape not be there, but we will no longer be able to see itin this way, it really is as if our eyes were punctured! For (opkins, the patterning of the natural world is always a reflection of God and a mode of access to God; thus this de#astation has implications for our ability to be religious people and to be in touch with the di#ine

presence! +he narrowness of the industrial mindset loses sight of these wider implications! (opkins puts this blindness in a biblical conte/t with his echoes of 1esus phrase at his own crucifi/ion) ,Father forgi#e them, for they know not what they do!-

Carrion Com%ort (188+,7)

Complete Text ;ot, .ll not, carrion comfort, <espair, not feast on thee; ;ot untwistslack they may bethese last strands of man .n me or, most weary, cry . can no more! . can; 3an something, hope, wish day come, not choose not to be! 5ut ah, but 6 thou terrible, why wouldst thou rude on me +hy wring-world right foot rock% lay a lionlimb against me% scan "ith darksome de#ouring eyes my bruised bones% and fan, 6 in turns of tempest, me heaped there; me frantic to a#oid thee and flee% "hy% +hat my chaff might fly; my grain lie, sheer and clear! ;ay in all that toil, that coil, since $seems& . kissed the rod, (and rather, my heart lo7 lapped strength, stole 2oy, would laugh, cheer! 3heer whom though% +he hero whose hea#en-handling flung me, foot trod 9e% or me that fought him% 6 which one% is it each one% +hat night, that year 6f now done darkness . wretch lay wrestling with $my God7& my God! Summary +he poem opens with a re2ection of <espair, that ,carrion comfort!- +o ,feast- on despair, (opkins a#ers, would be like eating something dead and #ile! ;or will the poet unra#el his ,last strands- of humanity by gi#ing up hope, though he is close to hopelessness and the strands are already ,slack!- (e makes the feeble but determined assertion ,. can,- and then goes on to e/plore what that assertion might mean, what basic action or spiritual gesture might ser#e to counteract despair) doing ,something- that e/presses hope, e#en if it is as minimal as wishing for morning or as negati#e as deciding not to kill himself!

(a#ing skirted the pit of despair, the poet 0uestions God about the suffering that has drawn him so close to hopelessness! (e asks why God would, so roughly, with his powerful right foot, ,rock- his world and send him writhing! "hy would God swipe at him with the dull and indiscriminate blow of a ,lionlimb-% "hy, then, maliciously look at him lying there with ,bruised bones- and further torment him with gales of ,tempest,while he cowers, ,heaped there,- wanting to escape but e/hausted and with nowhere to run%

+hen the poet attempts an answer! +he ,tempest- was actually a har#est wind, shucking the ,chaff- from the wheat to e/pose the kernels of goodness concealed within! .n patient acceptance of di#ine #engeance, the poet has ,kissed the rod- of Gods punishmentor rather, he corrects himself, he has kissed the hand that held that rod! :ince then he has suffered ,toil- and ,coil,- yet the act of acceptance has also brought a resurgence of optimism, mounting gradually to a ,cheer!- 5ut this word prompts another round of 0uestioning $,3heer whom though%-&; now that he knows that Gods rough treatment of him was for his own good, should he now applaud God for ha#ing treated him so% 6r does he congratulate himself for ha#ing struggled, for ha#ing met God directly% 6r both% +he speaker, howe#er far he has come from the brink of despair, is perhaps still trying to come to terms with that dark ,year- of suffering in which he struggled with God! Commentary (opkins wrote this sonnet at a time when he had 2ust emerged from a long period of depression and inner anguish! +he poem is carefully designed to surprise the reader and dramati'e the moment of recognition that the speaker e/periences in coming to terms with his own spiritual struggle! +he interpretation of the poem depends in large measure on how one reads the transitions between the poems three sections $the first 0uatrain, the second 0uatrain, and the sestet&! .n particular, ascertaining the poems chronology can be troubling, in part because (opkins withholds an important piece of chronological information until line @D, when the poem first shifts into the past tense! .n the second stan'a, there is a disturbing immediacy in the poets urgent protests against Gods unrelenting persecution; only in line @D does the poet re#eal that the trial has already passed! .n light of this recognition, the reader must ree#aluate the preceding lines! "hat is the order of cause and effect% "hy does (opkins use the present tense for the past e#ents of the poem% +he order of the e#ents described in the first two 0uatrains seems to be re#ersed in the telling! *resumably, the struggle against despair in lines one through four pro#ided a se0uel to the #iolence depicted in lines fi#e through eight! Bet the fact that this second 0uatrain is written in interrogati#e form brings it into the present of the poem! .t both tells of past e#ents and asks about their meaning from a retrospecti#e #antage $as if from the present&! .n this interpretation, the poem contains two different narrati#e lines superimposed on one another! +he first deals with a ,now done- crisis of suffering and resistance, in which the poet struggled in futility against God! +he second ,plot- takes place later than the first but is also, one hopes, nearing consummation #ia the thinking processes that ha#e contributed to the making of the poem itself! +his plot is the poets attempt to understand the initial crisisand it is this plot that takes place in the ,presentof the poem! .n this latter narrati#e, the content of the second 0uatrain does temporally follow that of the first; it constitutes the $partly self-pitying& 0uestions that still remain e#en after the poet has decided not to gi#e up hope! +hese four lines mark the problem of understanding still at hand for the poet, a problem that will then be resol#ed in the sestet! +here, the poet abandons the tone of impassioned self-protection and seeks theological e/planations for suffering and spiritual struggle!

Another chronological ambiguity centers on line @D! 6ne might assume that the ,toil- and ,coil- (opkins has e/perienced since he ,kissed the rod- are precisely this struggle for understanding, after the e/perience of complete ab2ection before God forced his spirit into submission! .t is out of that second struggle, in which he acknowledges both Gods and his own roles in the earlier, more wrenching struggle, that his heart is able to reco#er! 6n the other hand, we might read the phrase ,since $seems& . kissed the rod- differently! .n light of that pu''ling parenthetical ,seems,- one might decide that all the #iolence of the second 0uatrain has taken place after (opkins thought he had made his peace with God! .n that case, the cru/ of the theological problem would lie with the inscrutability of a God who would inflict such suffering on e#en (opkins, a priest who had de#oted his life to Gods ser#ice!

+here is also a way of reading the chronology of the poem more continuously! +he punishments in the second 0uatrain are perhaps inflicted by God in retaliation against the poets $insufficient& first resolution against despair! .n this reading, the poem would imply that the conclusions in the first stan'a are unacceptable to Godthe decision to ,not choose not to be- might seem willful and self-regarding, as compared to the humility and prostration before Gods will at which the poet afterward arri#es! .n this reading, the renewal of 0uestioning in the last lines might look like a further lapse, as the struggle for understanding continues in the poets own heart e#en though he ought to stand in total acceptance of Gods will! From the beginning, the poem works to contrast acti#e and passi#e beha#ior, and to weigh the two against each other! <espair is a kind of e/treme passi#ity, and a serious sin in 3hristian doctrine! (opkins graphically dramati'es the difference between this despair on the one hand and some hopeful spiritual acti#ity on the other! .n the eighth line we see the speaker as a pile of bones lying ,heaped there,- dehumani'ed, cowering, panicked, and struggling desperately for sur#i#al! +he sestet depicts the slow emergence from out of that heap, like an animal rising into a human being) lapping tentati#ely at strength as though it were restorati#e water, then sei'ing 2oy surreptitiously and, finally, more willfullywith a ,laugh- and a ,cheer!- +his is the purified heart rising out of the pile of bones, with more agency than in the foregoing image of the wheat being stripped of its chaff by a fortuitous wind! .n the self-pitying language of the second 0uatrain, the speaker was a passi#e #ictim! (owe#er, in the later assessment, he decides that he too might deser#e some credit for ha#ing battled it out with God, e#en if he felt comparati#ely helpless at the time! +he image of kissing the rod, likewise, in#ol#es an act of self-subordination that is ne#ertheless an act, and not perfectly passi#e! ;ot only has this act resulted in a personal purification, but it has also gi#en the speaker something else) a certain measure of 2oy or contentment!