An analysis of the windhover a poem by gerard manley hopkins

It closes by examining literature inspired by Krakatoa, including a letter by Gerard Manley Hopkins, a poem by Alfred Tennyson, and novels by R. Download this page in PDF format On 27 Augustafter a day of alarming volcanic activity, an obscure, uninhabited island now widely known as Krakatoa or Krakatau [1] erupted with a force more than ten thousand times that of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima Thornton 1. The world quickly took notice. Officials reported the eruption via undersea telegraph cables.

The poem, composed on May 30,contains the account of the flight of a falcon, as observed by the poet in North Wales as he attended religious studies at St. The poem ends with a meditation on the activity of God in the world, as evidenced by the activity of the bird.

A windhover is better known as a kestrel, a type of falcon. The octave of the sonnet, the first eight lines, describes the flight of the windhover and its great skill in riding the currents of air.

The narrator of the poem catches sight of the falcon at dawn, as the bird hovers and swoops in its hunt for prey. The different maneuvers of the bird in its flight are vividly described.

A young horse has a long rope attached to his bridle, and the trainer makes the horse trot around him in a large circle. In exactly this manner does the falcon swing around from his level flight forward to sweep into a circle.

The Windhover by Gerard Manley Hopkins - Poems | nationwidesecretarial.com

In the fifth line, the falcon suddenly swings around in the opposite direction. The entire section is words. Unlock This Study Guide Now Start your hour free trial to unlock this page The Windhover study guide and get instant access to the following:Born at Stratford, Essex, England, on July 28, , Gerard Manley Hopkins is regarded as one the Victorian era's greatest poets.

He was raised in a prosperous and artistic family. He attended Balliol College, Oxford, in , where he studied Classics.

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The Windhover by Gerard Manley Hopkins: Summary and Critical Analysis The Windhover by Gerard Manley Hopkins is a semi-romantic, religious poem dedicated to Christ.

It is a usual Hopkinsian sonnet that begins with description of nature and ends in meditation about God and Christ and his beauty, greatness and grace. The speaker of the poem looks up and sees a windhover (another name for the common kestrel, which is a kind of falcon).

Windhovers have the ability to hover in place in the air while they scan the ground for prey. The speaker watches the windhover ride the wind like it's a horse, and then wheel. Gerard Manley Hopkins was an awesome poet in spite of himself. Here's what we mean by that: He wrote some verses here and there as a youngster, but then went through a phase as a young adult when he stopped writing poetry altogether.

Finally (thank goodness) he started up again, but refused to publish. Talk about self-denial. A sonnet is a poem in a specific form which originated in Italy; Giacomo da Lentini is credited with its invention..

Poem of the week: The Windhover by Gerard Manley Hopkins | Books | The Guardian

The term sonnet is derived from the Italian word sonetto (from Old Provençal sonet a little poem, from son song, from Latin sonus a sound).

By the thirteenth century it signified a poem of fourteen lines that follows a strict rhyme scheme and specific structure. Monique R. Morgan is an Associate Professor of English at McGill University, where her research and teaching focus on Romantic and Victorian literature, narrative theory, poetics, and early science fiction.