The windhover by hopkins summary. The Windhover 2022-10-05

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"The Windhover" is a poem written by Gerard Manley Hopkins, a 19th-century English poet and Jesuit priest known for his innovative use of language and style. The poem is a celebration of the beauty and power of nature, as seen through the eyes of the speaker as he watches a windhover, or kestrel, soaring through the air.

In the first stanza, the speaker describes the windhover's graceful flight, using vivid and imaginative language to convey the bird's movement and the beauty of its wings. The bird is described as "tawny-headed" and "bold," with wings that are "spread round earth and sky." The speaker also uses the metaphor of the windhover being "the beauty of the world" and "the blue sky," emphasizing the bird's place in the natural world and the speaker's admiration for it.

The second stanza shifts focus to the windhover's prey, as the speaker watches the bird "pluck" a dragonfly from the air. The speaker marvels at the windhover's skill and speed, describing it as "swooping" and "bulging" as it captures its prey.

In the third stanza, the speaker reflects on the windhover's beauty and its connection to the divine, describing it as a "flash of the golden day," a "flash of the sky," and a "roll of the golden thunder." These lines suggest that the windhover's beauty and power are a manifestation of the divine, and that the speaker feels a sense of awe and wonder as he watches the bird soar through the air.

Overall, "The Windhover" is a poem that celebrates the beauty and power of nature, and the way in which it can inspire a sense of awe and wonder in those who observe it. Through vivid and imaginative language, Hopkins captures the grace and majesty of the windhover, and reflects on the ways in which it connects us to the divine.

The Windhover by Gerard Manley Hopkins: Summary, Analysis and Questions Answers » Smart English Notes

the windhover by hopkins summary

The poet proclaims his faith in God and his knowledge that nothing is ever meaningless. AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion 11Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier! These six lines have been split into two parts of three lines each. Form is embodied in Hopkins because his poetic forms are all conceived as postures of the body in stress and in prayer. The use of so many verbs in rapid succession reflects the bird's rapid changes in direction and shape. After all even clods of earth shine as they are plowed, and "blue-bleak" embers can turn "gold-vermillion" as they fall. My heart in hiding Stirred for a bird,—the achieve of; the mastery of the thing! Like during a romantic poem, he remembers the experience to precise his feelings.

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The Windhover Study Guide

the windhover by hopkins summary

Answer: The speaker is referring to the Falcon, which is flying above the speaker through the morning air. In either case, a unification takes place. Using these words and personification of the morning and daylight suggests that the bird is considered important by morning and daylight. The windhover itself shows in its bodily posture the same relation to the world that the poem attempts in describing the bird. Another aspect of this Where, selfwrung, sefstrung, sheathe-and-shelterless, thoughts agains thoughts in groans grind.


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The Windhover by G Manley Hopkins Summary & Analysis

the windhover by hopkins summary

The Windhover Analysis, Lines 9-14 Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here Buckle! Some unidentified problem may be holding the speaker back. It suspends itself in a single spot while beating its wings, and swoops down to catch its prey. In its bright plumage, in its command of the situation, in its haughty demeanour, it wins the hearts of the onlookers, who aspire to be like it. Its plunge is the climax of the experience for the speaker, who seems to exclaim aloud. Thinking back on the experience in the final three lines of the poem, the speaker broadens the perspective as if reminding themselves that nature and faith go hand in hand.

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The Windhover Poem Summary and Analysis

the windhover by hopkins summary

Its wings are its strength and help it to remain suspended. My heart in hiding Stirred for a bird,—the achieve of, the mastery of the thing! This aspect of the plough and the soil is the more obviously dramatic one-immortal beauty won from the harshest dullest toil, suffering, and discipline. Introduction to Poems and Prose of Gerard Manley Hopkins. This implies that the poet is speaking directly to God or Jesus Christ. Personification is attributing human features to nonhuman beings and things. The tercets in the sestet too balance the image of Christ with the two metaphorical images revelatory of his sacrifice.

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The Windhover

the windhover by hopkins summary

Through all of the poems, divinity reflects itself. The kestrel is only one of many beautiful and spiritually meaningful elements of nature. He was a Jesuit priest and was not published until after his death. AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier! He calls out directly to God to mention the wonder of His strength and power. This forces a pause at the beginning of the poem and also represents that the meanings in this poem may not be what one assumes them to be.

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The Windhover

the windhover by hopkins summary

The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem. Then it swoops down in a majestic sweeping motion, showing its mastery over the air. Yet, even the most mundane, menial of tasks can bring forth something amazing. Answer: The sight of the kestrel in the mid air, which is majestic like the dauphin, rides like an accomplished horseman, which shows tremendous mastery of movement and fights the big wind, like a cavalier. That morning, the speaker had been out at dawn. In the New Testament's Gospel of Matthew, the dying Jesus is offered a mixture of wine and gall as he hangs on the cross.


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Hopkins’s Poetry “The Windhover” Summary & Analysis

the windhover by hopkins summary

Dedicated to "Christ our Lord," the poem features a speaker observing a bird hovering and swooping down to earth.  the outline of the primary stanza and therefore the comparison of the second stanza are all forgotten when the poet deeply meditates and exalts within the sacrifice and greatness of Christ within the last three-line stanza. However, unlike the horse, the bird steers its own motion. This particular morning he sees the representative of morning itself. Watching the bird enraptures the speaker, but mention of "heart in hiding" suggests concealment and discontent. Questions and Answers 1. The movement from the kestrel to Christ is beautifully executed, with the Volta coming in the sestet.

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The Windhover “The Windhover” Summary and Analysis

the windhover by hopkins summary

But for Hopkins the buckling that leads to a fall also leads to the glory of the intense beauty, of which the fall turns out to be another version. . My heart in hiding 8Stirred for a bird, — the achieve of, the mastery of the thing! The crucial word in the poem is the much-discussed Buckle! Referring to the morning light as a "kingdom" and the bird as its "dauphin" bring in a sense of royalty, calling to mind Christ as the Prince of Heaven. Yet, the fire that comes from God is a billion times more beautiful and dangerous. The windhover is the beloved of morning and the inheritor and heir of the kingdom of daylight; therefore, it is itself an avatar of Christ, dauphin of the Kingdom of God. The noteworthiness of this falcon is that it is capable of hovering in mid-air while searching for its prey.

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The Windhover Summary & Study Guide

the windhover by hopkins summary

The poem itself buckles, but the windhover continues its flight, and this explodes into a revelation of its own fantastic power. In that one bird, all of these things have come together. No wonder of it: sheer plod makes plough down sillion Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear, Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.  because the subtitle suggests, the poem may be a thanksgiving to Christ. Similarly, the bird may glide through a curve like the heel of a skate, but again it steers itself, whereas the skater steers the skate. It rides the air as if it were on horseback, moving with steady control like a rider whose hold on the rein is sure and firm.

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