Gerard Manley Hopkins “Windhover” (1914)

Question 1

Form

Answer 1

The Windhover is a Petrarchan sonnet comprising an octave and a sestet.
The rhyme scheme is ABBA CDCDCD.
The poem is written in a sprung rhythm in which the number of accents in a line are counted but the number of syllables are not counted.
This structure allows Hopkins to vary the speed of his lines, capturing the pause and flight of the bird (which is a manifestation of God’s glory).

Question 2

Socio-political context

Answer 2

A growth of science & industrialisation:
While theories of evolution and scientific discoveries precipitated a crisis of religious disbelief, they also led to a sense of urgency and fervour (intensity / passion) in religious poetry, reaffirming faith.
Reinforcing the simple things in nature as a manifestation of God’s glory was also a reaction against the increasing mechanisation (industrialisation) of life.

Question 3

Socio-political context
“To Christ our Lord”

Answer 3

The dedication establishes Hopkins’ religious faith and expresses his sense of divine connection through nature and through the windhover bird.

Question 4

Socio-political context
“king-//dom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon,”

Answer 4

Symbolism – the bird is a symbol of Christ
Imagery – describes the beauty of the morning sun & the alliteration extends

Question 5

Socio-political context
“and striding // High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing // In his ecstasy!”

Answer 5

Assonance and Alliteration – highlights the inscape of the bird by rhythmically mirroring the qualities of its movement

Question 6

Socio-political context
“Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here // Buckle!”

Answer 6

Assonance/consonance, Alliteration, and single accents – manifestation of the bird’s instress; reflects the speed, strength, motion, and control of the bird’s dive

Question 7

Personal context

Answer 7

Religion:
Struggled with what he perceived to be the conflicting drives of his creativity and his duty as a Jesuit priest – he burned his early poems as a deliberate sacrifice of personal ambition.
Later reconciled creativity with spirituality through his concepts of “inscape” (the unique quality of things) and “instress” (the motion which manifests a thing’s uniqueness) where God’s creation is reflecting in things all around (particularly in nature).

Question 8

Personal context
“My heart in hiding // Stirred for a bird, – the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!”

Answer 8

Alliteration and Assonance/consonance – expresses the speaker’s sense of spiritual connection to the bird and to God

Diction and repetition – emphasises his admiration of the bird’s divine-like power and control (its instress)

Question 9

Personal context
“a billion // Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!”

Answer 9

Contrasting diction – expresses the primal/divine beauty (inscape) of the bird’s lethal dive towards its prey (instress)

Direct call to Christ / God – the speaker views the bird’s inscape and instress as a manifestation of God’s power; draws a parallel between the bird and Christ/God