Download

Dreamstime

The Caged Skylark

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-89)
 The Poem R R Overview
S

As a dare-gale skylark scanted in a dull cage, A Hopkins uses the comparison with a caged
Man’s mounting spirit in his bone-house, mean house, B 12
skylark to explore the limitations that can be
dwells – B 12
placed on a man by obligations, work and
That bird beyond the remembering his free fells; A 12
religious faith.
This in drudgery, day-labouring-out life’s age. A 12

Though aloft on turf or perch or poor low stage B 11

We see the skylark subdued and reduced to
Both sing sometimes the sweetest, sweetest spells, B 10
occasional song when locked away, but when free
Yet both droop deadly sómetimes in their cells A 10
being able to defy storms and babble contentedly.
Or wring their barriers in bursts of fear or rage. 12
All the time Hopkins is drawing parallels with the
C
state of a work-burdened man and suggesting
Not that the sweet-fowl, song-fowl, needs no rest – C 10
that only with freedom can either achieve their
Why, hear him, hear him babble and drop down to his nest, D 13
full potential and be happy.
But his own nest, wild nest, no prison. 9

C
11 Mini Glossary
Man’s spirit will be !esh-bound when found at best, C
12 dare-gale – two words combined to suggest the
But uncumberèd: meadow-down is not distressed D
14 lark’s bravery as it defies storms;
For a rainbow footing it nor he for his bónes risen.
scanted in – neglected conditions;
bone-house – another word combo which

Skylark song, United Kingdo… represents the human body, but expressed this
way has specific connotations that link it with the
idea of being imprisoned;
aloft on turf – the cage is hung up high and has
turf placed at its bottom presumably to make the
skylark feel more at home;

Cookie policy
meadow-down – the seed pods on top of
dandelions.

Skylark - famed for their tricks and practical jokes

'larking around'

Skylark © pete beard Flickr

Analysis
Context When I last analysed one of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poems (Pied Beauty) I
dismissed him as boring as he did not fit my world view of poets as raging
alcoholics, drug addicts, suicidal geniuses. However, I like to think I have grown
since then and I would now acknowledge that there is something quite poetic about
his life and his life choices. This poem focuses on the conflict between his religious
devotion and poetry. However, Hopkins is also thought to have struggled with
repressed homosexuality and with bipolar disorder. Thus he ticks the box for
having a complicated poetic life!

His adult life was a conflict between his poetry and his faith. In January 1866, while
studying Classics at Oxford University, he made the decision to give up poetry for
Lent, suggesting he viewed it as a vice. Later that year, in July, he made the decision
to convert from the Church of England to Catholicism. In doing so he estranged
himself from his family. By 1868 he decided to join the religious order of the
Jesuits, burnt all his poetry and gave up writing entirely for seven years. However,
after being asked to write a poem by a religious superior in 1874 he was dragged
back in.

This poem is one of eleven celebrated sonnets, In God’s Grandeur, written in 1877.
In the same year he would fail his final theology examination and ensure that he
could not progress up the ranks of the Jesuit order. He evidently struggled with
some of the aspects of religious devotion and the life of chastity, poverty and
obedience required by the Jesuits. This poem seems to sound his frustrations with
his religious commitment and the life it required him to live.

Hopkins never published any of his work, with his great friend Robert Bridge
responsible for bringing him posthumous recognition, as his faith forbade him
from pursuing anything that could be seen as egotistical. However, as an artist he
longed for an audience for his poetry and engagement with them. As a result of
this conflict he was left feeling like a double failure – unable to fully commit to his
religious or artistic obligations.

Themes The poem uses the symbolic beauty and strength of the free skylark and its song
to explore the human need for freedom from obligations and burdens in order to
be able to realise our full potential. The constant parallel between the caged bird
and man reflects on Hopkins own conflict between his artistic ambitions and his
religious faith, but can be taken more generally to be seen as a conflict between an
individual’s pursuit of happiness or fulfilment and the pressures placed upon them
by work, faith, family and obligations.
Content Although this is presented as three stanzas in the Songs of Ourselves collection, it
is really one sonnet. The opening octave establishes the parallel between the caged
bird and a man with both seen as having higher aspirations – the lark free flying in
a gale and man’s artistic or religious inspiration in the heavens. However, these
aspirations are squashed by the lark’s cage and the obligations in front of the man
that prevent both from being able to truly dedicate themselves to their passions.
Even though at times these passions or songs shine through regardless, both bird
and man are more often in a state of despair and depression as a result of being
trapped and locked away.

The sestet that follows explores the difference made when both are free. In lines 9-
12. Hopkins shows that although the bird may rest and nest just as in the cage, it
does so with on its own terms and no longer feels trapped or constrained, but is
filled with constant song and happiness. In the final three lines, man finds
fulfilment on earth, but only if he is not weighed down by obligation and
responsibilities.

Language The most crucial element to understand here is the continuous analogy between
bird and man.
and
Techniqu Hopkins chooses the skylark as it symbolises fun, freedom and fulfilment. In
modern days we use the phrase ‘larking around’ to mean messing around or being

es playful and this stems from an old maritime association of skylarks and playing
practical jokes or making tricks. Even the song of a skylark sounds playful and good
natured. This serves to intensify the sense of injustice in the bird being imprisoned
as the skylark is one that clearly enjoys its freedom.

He further builds upon this sense of injustice by describing the bird as a ‘dare-gale
skylark’. Hopkins borrows a technique from Anglo-Saxon poetry called kenning
when making a compound of two uncommonly associated words to provide an
alternative way of understanding the more commonly used phrase ‘dare-gale’ =
‘storm-defying’. The compound focuses on the idea that this small bird has
tremendous bravery and the ability to withstand the strongest storms, which make
the fact it is ‘scanted in a dull cage’ seem even more unjust. Its life of incarceration
means it reaches a state ‘beyond remembering [its] free fells’ as if this bird no
longer recalls the time its flew freely. The imagery makes us picture a proud and
strong bird reduced to a boring life where it does not get to fulfil its potential and
embrace its natural desire to fly free in these conditions.

As this injustice and deprivation of freedom is something that we can easily

imagine, Hopkins uses it to convey his own sense of feeling trapped by obligation.
While the lark is caged. ‘man’s mounting spirit in his bone-house… dwells’. The
‘mounting spirit’ conveys an idea that our spirit wants to rise and soar without
limitations and yet it cannot because it is burdened by the human body. Again
Hopkins uses a kenning (‘bone-house’ = ‘body’) to add negative connotations and
make us see the human body as comparable to a prison with the bones like the bars
of a cage keeping us trapped and preventing our spirits from mounting. The poet
adds ‘mean house’ to the description suggesting that our spirits or souls are
confined by our bodies and by our earthly existence.

In Christianity the human body is ‘the body of sin’ (Romans 6:6) as our natural
desires lead to mankind committing sins. Thus Hopkins could be seen as simply
reflecting a struggle between his desire to lead a spiritually upright existence and
his human desires and urges. However, given the context of this poem being
written at a time where he was struggling with the reality of an austere Jesuit
lifestyle, I feel it is more likely to reflect that it is the ‘drudgery, day-labouring-out
life’s age’ represented by an unfulfilling and empty life, with labour being work
that you do for someone else rather than oneself.

In lines 5-6 we see further evidence of my interpretation. The skylark is confined to

the artificial ‘turf’ of the cage, while man is metaphorically on a ‘poor low stage’,
thus an unimportant or insignificant role in the world. However, in spite of this,
both are capable of ‘the sweetest, sweetest spells’ meaning that they can
momentarily demonstrate their full beauty or talent. The repetition of ‘sweetest’
serves to emphasise just how fulfilling it is to achieve this feat. For the bird this
represents it occasionally finding voice and singing its merry tune, while for man
or Hopkins particularly these ‘sweetest spells’ seem to suggest his poetry. The
eleven sonnets written in 1877, a time of great religious angst for the poet,
demonstrate just this.

Yet this brief high is juxtaposed with a bitter low. Bird and man ‘droop deadly… in
their cells’ which implies a physical state of melancholy or depression that makes
them physically dropped. The hard alliterative ‘d’s here stand in contrast to the
soft sibilance of the previous line (‘sing sometimes the sweetest, sweet spells’) and
provides us with an auditory juxtaposition in the tone of the poem. This
depression is interrupted by the attacks against the cage caused by ‘fear or rage’.
This imagery demonstrates the level of frustration of both, but it also
communicates a sense of futility as the ‘wring[ing of] their barriers’ cannot even
break or bend the bars of their cages and thus there is no hope of escape. Thus both
may have moments of light and joy even when imprisoned, but neither will ever
forget that they are trapped and unfulfilled.

As this is a sonnet, the opening octave establishes the thought or argument of the
poem, while the concluding sestet provides a volta or turn of the argument.
Hopkins moves the thought on by painting imagery of what bird and man are
when free from the cage or obligations weighing them down. Life does not change
so that it is unrecognisable as the bird still needs rest and somewhere to nest, but
the fact it is ‘his own nest’ a ‘wild nest’ means that it feels free and makes its own
choices. Their is a sense of wonder established by Hopkins with the opening of line
ten as if confronted with the wondrous song of the skylark: ‘Why, hear him, hear
him’ with the repetition conveying a sense of joyous disbelief or surprise hearing
the ‘babble’ of the bird. It is interesting that the poet refers to the birds song when
it is caged and ‘babble’ when it is free. Babble can be used to describe meaningless
talk or speech, but here it is oxymoronically seen as more beautiful and
praiseworthy than the song because it conveys a sense of busyness and personal
occupation for the bird. This message extends to man as part of the sonnet’s
continuing analogy.

In the final three lines Hopkins focuses directly on man rather than bird. This sense
of human fulfilment ‘will be flesh-bound when found at best’ stands at odds with
the idea of this poem backing up the religious idea of the body being sinful and our
souls being the true or pure representations of ourselves. Thus the poet thinks that
we reach our best or fulfil our potential on earth rather than in heaven or in an
afterlife type scenario. However, only when ‘uncumbered’ or burdened with
obligations, responsibilities or work that distract from a man finding his own way.

The final thought comes in the form of a metaphor and a simile. Hopkins conjures
imagery of a meadow of dandelions in seed that are not disturbed or ‘distressed’,
but enhanced by a ‘rainbow footing’ suggesting that they are made to look more
beautiful in the fresh spring days where gentle drizzles meet sunshine with the
touch of a rainbow’s inspiration. This is compared to a man with his ‘bones risen’,
which takes us back to the idea of being imprisoned in our ‘bone-house[s]’, and
 suggests that we can be freed not by death and no longer being in our bodies, but by
pursuing our own inspiration, passions and desires.

Structure This poem follows the form of a French sonnet with an opening octave (with two
distinct quatrains) establishing the problem and the concluding sestet offering a
solution or answer to the predicament. The bleak tone and imagery of the opening
are immediately contrasted with the more uplifting imagery of the free skylark.
This allows the reader to reflect on problems that a more than likely personally
relatable and give them a suggestion of the path to resolution. For this poem, who
doesn’t feel like they are weighed down doing things they don’t want to be doing
and do not have enough time to do the things they love? Solution, break free and do
what you love!

The volta (turn of the poem from problem to solution) in line 9 changes the tone of
the poem in terms of subject, but also in terms of rhythm and rhyme. Hopkins
regular syllable count in the opening octave is disrupted and freer, while the
rhyme scheme becomes more melodies with four lines ending with one rhyme
sound and the other two with another.

Tone From the bleak depiction of human reality, or maybe just Hopkins’ reality, in the
opening octave that is somewhat constricted by the regularity of the poetic form,
the poem shifts into a more celebratory tone as we imagine both man and bird free.
The rhythm shifts and becomes more irregular and free, while the rhymes are
enhanced and become more melodious.

! "

← Previous Post Next Post →

Leave a Comment
Logged in as marinoseliades. Log out?
 Type here..

Post Comment »

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Copyright © 2020 CIE Literature | Powered by Astra WordPress Theme