"Arts, Faculty of"@en . "English, Department of"@en . "DSpace"@en . "UBCV"@en . "Cafferata, Florence"@en . "2011-11-24T00:57:54Z"@en . "1962"@en . "Master of Arts - MA"@en . "University of British Columbia"@en . "Since 1930, critics have given wide attention to the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Some of these critics have discussed the nature element in Hopkins\u00E2\u0080\u0099 poetry; but, generally, they have considered the nature imagery as one of the less important elements of Hopkins' work, confining their criticism to general statements, or limiting their discussion to one, or to a very few, of Hopkins' poems. This thesis attempts to go beyond these generalities. By a thorough investigation of Hopkins' use of nature, it attempts to show that nature imagery constitutes one of the major unifying elements of his poetry. Special attention will be given to the discussion of the \"terrible sonnets\" whose nature imagery may be said to synthesize the anguish of soul which prompted the poet to write these sonnets.\r\nThree groups of poems exemplify nature imagery as a unifying element in Hopkins' poetry: Hopkins' simple nature poetry, his poetry of praise, and the \"terrible sonnets.\" In his simple nature poetry, Hopkins, by expressing his concept of the beauty of nature, allows the reader to share this vision of beauty with him. In the poetry of praise, Hopkins uses nature imagery to express one consistent theme, or \"underthought\"-- the grandeur of God and man's consequent duty of praise. The \"terrible sonnets\" celebrate God's power, His justice and His mercy. These seven poems of poignant beauty are Hopkins' expression of the terrible sufferings of the spiritual \"nights\" in which the only source of hope is God's mercy.\r\nThe nature imagery in each of these groups is closely connected with Hopkins' poetic theories of inscape and instress. Hopkins considered that the essence of the object is to be found in its individual distinctiveness. Closely connected with the teachings of Duns Scotus, this philosophy provided Hopkins with a basis for his theories of inscape and instress, the key concepts of Hopkins' poetry. In inscape, the intuitive glance which follows the sensuous perception of the object allows the beholder to see its individually distinctive essence. The word \"instress\" is used by Hopkins to mean two different principles. At times, \"instress\" is used to express the principle of actuality of the object; at other times, to define the total effect which an individual inscape produces upon the one who sees it.\r\nHopkins' poetic techniques are a natural result of his theories of inscape and instress. In an effort to express inscape accurately he sought to reproduce in his poetry exactly what he saw and what he heard. He called into play all the resources of language, of nature imagery, of poetic techniques and of prosody which he could command; and he produced a poetry which is at once dynamic, original, and beautiful.\r\nAn understanding of Hopkins' theology of nature is also basic to the correct interpretation of his poetry. To Hopkins, all nature is a manifestation, an \"utterance\" of God; each separate object \"utters\" God in its own individual way. This sacramental view of nature was the result of Hopkins' unique ability to see things at once on both a natural and a supernatural level. He expresses the \"underthought\" of God, or of man's relations to God, by means of the \"overthought\" of nature. Nature imagery is, therefore, one of the principled unifying elements of Hopkins' poetry."@en . "https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/39255?expand=metadata"@en . "-GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS' ,USE OF NATURE IN HIS POETRY by FLORENCE CAFFERATA (Sister Mary Monica S.E.J.) B.A., University of Saskatchewan, 1 9 5 3 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS i n the Department of ENGLISH We accept t h i s t h e s i s as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA A p r i l 1962 In presenting t h i s thesis in' p a r t i a l f u l f i l m e n t of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of B r i t i s h Columbia, I agree that the Library s h a l l make i t f r e e l y available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of t h i s thesis f o r scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his representatives. It i s understood that copying or publication of t h i s thesis f o r f i n a n c i a l gain s h a l l not be allowed without my written permission. Department of The University of B r i t i s h Columbia, Vancouver 8, Canada. Date ABSTRACT Since 1930, critics have given wide attention to the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Some of these critics have discussed the nature element in Hopkins1 poetry; but, generally, they have considered the nature imagery as one of the less important elements of Hopkins' work, confining their criticism to general statements, or limiting their discussion to one, or to a very few, of Hopkins' poems. This thesis attempts to go beyond these generalities. By a thorough investigation of Hopkins' use of nature, i t attempts to show that nature imagery constitutes one of the major unifying elements of his poetry. Special at-tention will be given to the discussion of the \"terrible sonnets\" whose nature imagery may be said to synthesize the anguish of soul which prompted the poet to write these sonnets. Three groups of poems exemplify nature imagery as a unifying element in Hopkins' poetry: Hopkins' simple nature poetry, his poetry of \"praise, and the \"terrible sonnets.\" In his simple nature poetry, Hopkins, by expressing his concept of the beauty of nature, allows the reader to share this vision of beauty with him. In the poetry of praise, Hopkins uses nature imagery to express one consistent theme, or \"underthought\" the grandeur of God and man's consequent duty of praise. The \"terrible sonnets\" celebrate God's power, His justice and His mercy. These seven poems of poignant beauty are Hopkins' \u00E2\u0080\u00A2Iii expression of the terrible sufferings of the spiritual \"nights\" in which the only source of hope is God's mercy. The nature imagery in each of these groups is closely connected with Hopkins' poetic theories of inscape and instress. Hopkins considered that the essence of the object is to be found in its individual distinctiveness. Closely connected with the teachings of Duns Scotus, this philosophy provided Hopkins with a basis for his theories of inscape and instress, the key concepts of Hopkins' poetry. In inscape, the intuitive glance which follows the sensuous perception of the object allows the beholder to see its individually distinctive essence. The word \"instress\" is used by Hopkins to mean two different principles. At times, \"instress\" is used to express the prin-ciple of actuality of the object; at other times, to define the total effect which an individual inscape produces upon the one who sees i t . Hopkins' poetic techniques are a natural result of his theories of inscape and instress. In an effort to express inscape accurately he sought to reproduce in his poetry exactly what he saw and what he heard. He called into play a l l the resources of language, of nature imagery, of poetic techniques and of prosody which he could command; and he produced a poetry which is at once dynamic, original, and beautiful. An understanding of Hopkins' theology of nature is also iv basic to the correct interpretation of his poetry. To Hopkins, a l l nature is a manifestation, an \"utterance\" of God; each separate object \"utters\" God in its own individual way. This sacramental view of nature was the result of Hopkins' unique ability to see things at once on both a natural and a super-natural level. He expresses the \"underthought\" of God, or of man's relations to God, by means of the \"overthought\" of nature. Nature imagery is, therefore, one of the principled unifying elements of Hopkins'' poetry. V ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I wish to express my grateful thanks to a l l those who have so readily assisted me in the writing of this thesis. The amount of critical writing on Gerard Manley Hopkins is already so vast and varied that my principal research problem has involved selection rather than accumulation of material. In my research, the librarians at the University of British Columbia have given me generous and courteous service. During the summer of 1961, when I had the privilege of auditing an English class on Gerard Manley Hopkins given at the Seattle University by Father D. Anthony Bischoff, S.J., Father Bischoff went out of his way to help me. At a l l times, the members of the English Department at the University of British Columbia have been helpful and sympathetic. Dr. William E. Fredeman, my director, has been an ideal guide. To him I owe special thanks; for my success i s , in no small part, due to his constant and willing assistance. Lastly, I wish to thank my own Community, the Sisters of the Child Jesus. They have made my work possible by their understanding and by their practical assistance. To my Community I also owe what this research work has given to me personally\u00E2\u0080\u0094a deeper appreciation of English Literature and of the beauty that i t can bring into one's own l i f e . vi CONTENTS Chapter I Introduction: \"The Whole World Utters Sod\" 1 Chapter II lature Poetry: \"What is a l l this Juice and a l l this Joy?\" 1 8 Chapter III Poetry of Praise: \"The World is fi l l e d with the Grandeur of God\" <\u00E2\u0080\u00A2-\u00E2\u0080\u00A2\u00E2\u0080\u00A2 h$ Chapter IV The Terrible Sonnets: \"God's most just Decree\" 65 Chapter V Conclusion: \"Thee God I come from, to Thee Go\" 1 0 7 Bibliography 11\u00C2\u00BB+ - 1 -CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: \"THE WHOLE WORLD UTTERS GOD\" The purpose of t h i s thesis i s to discuss the use that Gerard Manley Hopkins makes of nature i n his poetry. Three kinds of poems exemplifying Hopkins' use of nature w i l l be considered: simple nature poetry, poetry of praise, and poetry celebrating the power, j u s t i c e , and mercy of God. By an analysis of the poet's attitude towards nature, of h i s methods of reproducing the world which he sees around him, and of his i n t e r p r e t a t i o n of creation as a manifestation of the Creator, an attempt w i l l be made to demonstrate that nature forms one complete and con-s i s t e n t aspect of Hopkins' work and that t h i s aspect i s i n keeping with the poet's own attitudes towards l i f e . Special emphasis w i l l be given to the study of \"the t e r r i b l e sonnets\" since the nature images i n them sythesize the desolation which the poet was experiencing at the time i n which they were composed. Many c r i t i c s have discussed, i n general terms, Gerard Manley Hopkins' use of nature. This t h e s i s attempts to go beyond these general observations\u00E2\u0080\u0094to demonstrate how Hopkins' love of nature served as a source upon which the poet drew i n expressing his varied sympathies, attitudes, and i d e a l s , Thus the di v i s i o n s made i n the poetry r e f l e c t these d i f f e r e n t attitudes rather than s t r i c t , chronological categories. The complex nature of Hopkins' verse - 2 -necessitates a clear statement of the limitations of this thesis. I do not propose to discuss Hopkins' metrics; nor w i l l I consider the theological aspects of Hopkins' work, except as they may be necessary to document the topic under discussion. Moreover, I w i l l use Hopkins' prose works only to substantiate his poetic works. Gerard Manley Hopkins loved nature passionately. Even as a child, his observant eye and inquiring mind taught him much about the beauty of nature in the world around him. He found beauty everywhere. A l i t t l e waterfall, a cloud, a sunset, a s t a r - f i l l e d sky\u00E2\u0080\u0094each pied or dappled t h i n g \u00E2\u0080\u0094 a l l had for him i t s own fas-cinating and absorbing beauty. He loved i t a l l ; and, because he loved i t , he learned to write of nature intimately, confidently, and lovingly. His early work showed a decidedly Keatsian strain. \"The boy Hopkins,\" says Dr. Gardner, \"equals the twenty-two-year-Keats in the luscious quality of his Romantic imagery.\"1 The description of the sunset in \"The Vision of the Mermaids\" i s typical of the early Hopkins: Now a l l things rosy turned: the west had grown To an orb'd rose which, by hot panting blown W. H. Gardner, Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889): AStudy of Idiosyncrasy in Relation to Poetic Tradition, II, (London, 1949), p.54--hereafter cited as Gardner. - 3 -Apart, betwix't ten thousand p e t a l l ' d l i p s By interchange gasp'd splendor and eclipse.2 On the natural l e v e l t h i s sensuous beauty of the world appealed so deeply to Hopkins that h i s heart t h r i l l e d to a l l that was good and be a u t i f u l . The many entries about nature i n h i s early d i a r i e s and notebooks show that he accepted sensuous beauty as e s s e n t i a l l y good. Only once, i n \"The Habit of Perfection,\" he seemed to reject the sensuous appeal of beauty. Yet, even i n t h i s instance, he rejected beauty not as an e v i l but as a les s e r good. Except f o r t h i s one youthful, perhaps over-earnest appeal f o r a u sterity, Hopkins expressed h i s delight i n the world of nature. In h i s mature years, however, nature was to become f a r more s i g n i f i c a n t to Hopkins. He developed what John Pick has c a l l e d a sacramental view of nature, i n which a l l nature was f o r him something consecrated, possessing a sacredness within i t s e l f and having an influence analogous to that of a sacrament.^ Although Hopkins arrived at t h i s sacramental view of nature from h i s own 2Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins. The F i r s t E d i t i o n with Preface and Notes by Robert Bridges. Edited with addi t i o n a l Poems, Notes, and A Biographical Introduction by W. H. Gardner; 3rd edition (New York, 194#), p.18\u00E2\u0080\u0094hereafter c i t e d as Poems. A l l subsequent references to poems w i l l be inserted i n the text, immediately following the quotation. Roman numerals w i l l be used to designate the number of the poem (1948 Ed i t i o n ) ; arabic numbers, to desig-nate the l i n e of the poem. 3John Pick, Gerard Manley Hopkins: Pri e s t and Poet (London, 1942), 3 5 \u00E2\u0080\u0094hereafter c i t e d as Pick. experiences, his whole theory was undoubtedly influenced by h i s Jesuit t r a i n i n g . ^ I t was Hopkins* application of \"a concentrated vein\"5 that was responsible f o r what John Pick c a l l e d \"absolute honesty, directness, passionate personal utterance and concentrated i n t e n s i t y . \" 6 This sacramental view of nature i s p e r f e c t l y i n keeping with Homan Catholic theology, which holds that God the Son i s the Manifestation, the Revelation\u00E2\u0080\u0094the Utterance\u00E2\u0080\u0094of God. Through the Incarnation, the Word of God has been revealed i n human form, i n the Person of Jesus Christ, the Perfect Godsiman. Hopkins' view i s that just as God has revealed Himself within the T r i n i t y by His Word, so He continually reveals Himself, outside the T r i n i t y , through a l l His creation. Nature, then, i s t h i s utterance of God outside the T r i n i t y . God's utterance of himself i n himself i s God the Word, outside himself i s t h i s world. This world then i s word, expression, news of God. Therefore i t s end, i t s purpose, i t s purport, i t s meaning, i s God and i t s l i f e or work to name and praise him.7 ^\u00E2\u0080\u00A2For J e s u i t i c a l influences on Hopkins see Alan Heuser, The Shaping Vision of Gerard Manley Hopkins (London: Oxford University Press, 1958), 33 \" f f . \u00E2\u0080\u0094 h e r e a f t e r c i t e d as Heuser. ' 5Humphry House, \"Gerard Manley Hopkins,\" Times L i t e r a r y Sup^ . pLementi,No. 1721 (Jan.31,1935),59. 6 P i c k , p.127. ?The Sermons and Devotional Writings of Gerard Manley Hopkins, edited Christopher Devlin {London: Oxford University Press, 1959), 129\u00E2\u0080\u0094hereafter c i t e d as Sermons. *\u00E2\u0080\u00A2 5 -A l l creation has as its purpose to glorify God. Each creature serves by being what God has willed i t to be. The more perfectly i t f u l f i l l s this purpose, the more glory i t gives to God. Hopkins further added that there is a distinction to be made between the glory other created things give to God and that which man gives: The sun and the stars shining glorify God. They stand' where he placed them, they move where he bid them . . . . They glorify God, but they\" do not\"know i t . The birds sing to him, the thunder speaks of his terror, the lion is like his strength, the sea is like his greatness, the honey like his sweetness; they are something like him, they make him known, they\"tell Of him, they give him glory, but they do not know they do . . . . This is poor praise, faint reverence, slight\"service, dull glory. Nevertheless\" what they can,\" they always do. But amidst them a i l is man . . \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 &rho was] created like the rest then to praise, reverence and serve God, to give him glory. He does so, even by his being, beyond a l l visible creatures. . . . But man can know God, can mean to give him glory.8 Hopkins' attitude was clearly that a l l natural beauty is to be classed as a part of the great whole of creation, performing the function for which i t was created. He saw God as an underlying cause of a l l natural beauty. He was able to subordinate sensuous beauty to God's beauty because he could shift his attention and admiration from the natural beauty of the object to its intel-lectual, and then to its moral, beauty. \"Hopkins habitually shifts his gaze from the order and perspectives of nature to the analogous but grander scenery of the moral and intellectual Sermons, p.239. - 6 -order.Hopkins' next step was to refer whatever beauty he perceived to God who had first given i t to man: \"Give beauty back, beauty, beauty, beauty back to God, beauty's self and beauty's giver.\" (LIX, 37). Whenever Hopkins perceived an object with his senses, he accounted for i t with his intellect in a detailed and scientific way. His description of the chestnut fan in \"On the Origin of Beauty\" offers a good illustration of how his mind worked. The chestnut-fan with its seven leaves is beautiful, not by its complete symmetry, but by the contrast afforded to its regularity. Six leaves are symmetrical; variety is furnished by the seventh l e a f . ^ As, in the chestnut-fan, regularity with variety is the principle of beauty, so the, beauty of an object of a particular species lies in its individually distinctive pattern. \"Hopkins habitually looked at objects with the fixed determination to catch what was individually distinctive in them In order to arrive at some insight into their essence as individuals. \"H It is to ?H. M. McLuhari, \"The Analogical Mirrors,\" Gerard Manley Hopkins, edited by the Kenyon Critics (Norfolk, Connecticut: New Directions Books, 1945) 19\u00E2\u0080\u0094hereafter cited as Kenydn Critics. The Journals and Papers of Gerard\"Manley Hopkins, edited by Humphry House, completed by Graham Storey ftondon: Oxford University Press, 1959), 86-117. See especially p.92\u00E2\u0080\u0094hereafter cited as Journals. A.M. Peters, Gerard Manley Hopkins: A Critical Essay towards the Understanding of his Poetry (London: Oxford University Press, 1948), 2\u00E2\u0080\u0094hereafter cited as Peters. -7 -label this pattern of individually distinctive beauty that Hopkins coined the name inscape. The sensation of inscape he called 'stress' or 'instress'. W. A. M. Pet;ers has discussed inscape and instress at * 12 length.' To define \"inscape\" he compares i t with \"landscape\" and \"seascape.\" The suffix 'scape' in 'landscape' and 'seascape' posits the presence of a unifying principle which enables us to consider part of the countryside or sea as a unit and as an individual, but so that this part is perceived to carry the typical properties of the actually undivided whole. By placing special emphasis on this second aspect of 'scape' , . . . 'scqpe' comes to stand for that being which is an exact copy or reflection of the individual whole on which i t is dependent for its existence.13 For Hopkins, every natural object, every work of art, and every human being has a unique individual self or \"thisness.\" Later he coupled his own idea of the \"self\" with that of Duns Scotus' \"haecceitas.\"^ According to Hopkins' theory, each separate object (whether a natural object, a work of art, a thought, or a human being) is different from every other one of its species, \u00E2\u0080\u00A2^See Peters, Chapters I and II ^Peters, p.2. l^See Heuser, p.24 f f . for an explanation that Hopkins did not get his idea of inscape and instress from Scotus since he used both terms in \"Parmenidesi\" an undergraduate essay. Hopkins did not read Scotus until 1872, but reading i t confirmed his intuitions and speculations about' inscape and instress.\"Haecceitas\" is the individual nature as distinguished from the universal essence of an object. and i t is that which is particular to i t which makes every object what i t is.\"*\"-* \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 One of Hopkins1 best examples of inscape is his description of the lambs on a spring day: \"'The young lambs bound(/Jks to the tabour's sound.' They toss and toss: It is as i f i t were the earth that flung them, not themselves. It is the pitch of graceful agility when we think that.\"16 Here the inscape consists of two distinct phases, the conscious and the unconscious. Hopkins' conscious effort to regard these \"bounding-to-the-tabour's sound\" lambs allowed him to glimpse the relationship between the lambs and the earth until i t appeared as i f the earth were bouncing them rather than that they were tossing by their own efforts. Then, having caught this relationship, Hopkins saw in the particular lamb-earth unit the expression of a l l graceful agility, and through the lamb-earth unit he unconsciously inscaped the universal meaning of graceful agility. Bluebells always had a special appeal for Hopkins. He des-cribes them several times. His Journal entry for May 9 , 1 & 7 1 is \u00E2\u0080\u00A2^rphtroduction,\" A Hopkins Reader, edited by John Pick (New York: Oxford University Press, 1 9 5 3 ) , xvi.ff. x Journals, p.206. - 9 -typical. After describing the bluebells in the woods \"in blackish spreads or sheddings like the spots on a snake,\" he goes on to give a detailed description of their effects on each of the senses of touch, taste, and smell. For the sense of sight he says: But this is easy, i t is the eye they baffle. They give one a fancy of panpipes and of some wind instruments with stops . . . they take\"stronger turns, in the head like sheephooks or, when more waved throughout, like the Waves riding through a whip that is being smacked . the inscape of the flower most finely carried out in the siding of the axes, each striking a greater and greater slant, is finished in these clustered buds, which for the most part are not straightened but rise to the end like a tongue and this and their tapering and a l i t t l e flattening they have make them look like the heads of snakes.17 On May 18, 1870, his Journal reads: \"I do not think I have ever seen anything more beautiful that the bluebell I have been looking at. I know the beauty of Our Lord by i t . Itjs inscape] is [mixed:ofJ strength and grace.\"^ In both these quotations, Hopkins expresses his theory of the unique, individual essence of the bluebell as one distinct species of the plant world. It differs from a l l other plants in touch, smell and sight. More-over, because each individual bluebell differs from every other bluebellj i t expresses its own particular inscape. Hopkins ^Journals, p.209. l gJournals, p.199. - 1 0 -further expresses his intense love of nature when he comments on the ash tree felled in the garden: \"I heard the sound and looked out and seeing i t maimed there came at that moment a pang and I wished to die and not see the inscapes of the world destroyed any more.\"-'-'? Hopkins appeals to the modern reader because he writes of particular details rather than of the universal. The trend in modern times has been from the universal to the particular in subjects, methods of treatment, and style. Hopkins particularizes a universal idea. He takes a hroadJ. truth and works i t down. In-scape is for him a broad truth. To get to its meaning he takes particular examples. He wants to know what i t is in a bluebell that makes i t a bluebell; he tries to understand its \"bluebell-ness\" in order the better to understand the law o f a l l bluebells, in order also to get a better grasp of the law of a l l objects, and to grasp further the relationship of each of these creatures with its Creator. Hopkins felt that inscape was necessary for writing true poetry. It was only when he had caught the inscape of an object\u00E2\u0080\u0094when the individual nature of the object had made itself clear to him so that the object stood out for what i t was\u00E2\u0080\u0094 that he felt i t possible to write about i t . ^ \u00E2\u0080\u00A2'-\"The Mote-Books and Papers of Gerard Manley Hopkins, edited Humphry House (London, 1937), 174. have taken this idea, and a number of other ideas from lecture notes of Father D. Anthony Bischoff who gave an English class on Gerard Manley Hopkins at Seattle University, Summer 1961, In succeeding pages these references will be marked by an asterisk.' - 1 1 -The idea of instress follows naturally from that of inscape. Hopkins used the term \"instress\" in two widely different senses: as cause and as effect. Considered causally, instress is \"that core of being or inherent energy which is the actuality of the 2 1 object.\" Such instress \"stems from the unique being\" of the object, and uniqueness of being is brought to its fullest exis-tence \"only by the instress carried in i t . \" 2 2 in the causal sense, instress is \"the supernatural force which binds in and bounds the finite One. . . . It is in effect the hand of God upon his creation.\" 23 i n \"Parmenides\" Hopkins explains how a l l things are upheld by stress, since i t is \"the stem of stress\" between us and the objects, which allows us to reach universals from particular knowledge. Considered as effect, instress is \"the specifically individual impression an object makes on man, \" 2 l f as when Hopkins writes \"I felt the instress and the charm of Wales,\"25 When a person takes in an inscape he does so because of the instress which stems from the unique being of the object. 2 1Peters, p . 1 5 . 22 For instress, see Marjorie Coogan, \"Inscape and Instress: Further Analogies with Scotus.\"Publications of Modern Language Association. LXv\" (March 1 9 5 0 ) , 6 6 - 7 4 - . I have made use of this article as well as of Peters for my explanation of inscape and instress. 2 3Gardiner, I, p.11. 2 l fPeters, p.15\". 2 5 Journals, p . 2 5 8 . - 12 -Instress may be either active or passive. It is passive when the inscape is born ein upon the mind; whereas, when deliberate contemplation produces a purely subjective revelation, i t is active. Although the causal aspect runs like an undercurrent through a l l his works, the second sense of instress predominates in Hopkins1 poetry, especially in his later works. It should be noted, too, that there exists a definite relationship between instress and inscape. Every inscape will have an instress. while inscape belongs to the object, instress conveys the distinctiveness of the object to the perceiver. Inscape can, therefore, be described in terms of sense impressions; 26 instress in terms of impressions on the soul. Thomas Merton has summed up Hopkins1 whole theory of inscape and instress, together with his sacramental view of nature: A tree gives glory to God f i r s t of a l l by being a tree. For in being what God meant i t to be i t is imitating an idea which is in God and which is therefore not distinct from the essence of God, and therefore the tree imitates God by being a tree. / The more a tree is like itself the more i t is like Him. If i t tried to be anything else which i t was never intended to be, i t would be less like God and therefore i t would give Him less Glory. . . . That particular tree will give God glory by spreading out its roots and raising its branches into the air and the light in a way that no other tree before or after i t ever did or will do. Therefore each particular thing . . . gives God glory by being precisely what He wants i t to be \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 . . . The forms and individual characters of living and 2 6Peters, p .1 5 . - 13 -growing things, of \"inanimate things . . .\"\".\"of a l l nature, constitute their holiness in the sight of God. / Their inscape is their sanctity. 2? The tree is a unique creation because of its individuality. It has its own particular inscape whose instress, or effect upon the beholder, is also unique. At the same time, the tree because i t is a creation\u00E2\u0080\u0094an utterance of God\u00E2\u0080\u0094derives both its l i f e and its form from the Creator. Therefore i t may be said to partake of the nature of God. The nearer i t comes to being a perfect tree, the more perfect will be its \"utterance\" of God. This quality constitutes the tree's sacramental property which is closely dependent on its individuality, and is closely related to both its inscape and its instress. The sacramental quality is present in much of Hopkins' nature poetry in which sensuous appeal of nature's beauty becomes the starting point for Hopkins to look deeper into its being, to realize its inscape, and to feel its instress. He might look long and hard at...a stone in the garden until i t appeared in its own individuality; by doing so he realized its inscape and, having caught its beauty, he confined i t with his other \"beauties\" to his \"Treasury of explored beauty.u<,\u00C2\u00B0 Intensity of thought and 'Thomas MertOn, Seeds of Contemplation, (Norfolk, Connecticut: New Directions Books, 1949), 8-10. ^Further 'Letters of Gerard Manley Hopkins, edited by Claude Colleer Abbott, 2nd edition (London, 1956), 202\u00E2\u0080\u0094hereafter cited as Further Letters. _ - 14 -feeling made Hopkins most accurate in the technical aspects of his writing, so that his work, already beautiful in thought, received a form perfectly suited to its thought. The typical structure of Hopkins' lyrics is a description, followed by a comment, an application. 2^ This method of writing is well adapted to the progress of thought from the sensuous beauty of the object, to the intellectual and moral beauty which he perceived behind i t . Most of Hopkins' poems are sonnets. This form was suited to the intensity of Hopkins' expression. Because he had so l i t t l e time for literature, Hopkins found i t difficult to write long poems; he could, however, in the short intervals of time which he managed to salvage from his work, write down a sonnet which he had already created within his.mind, or he could polish up one which he had previously written. Hopkins made use of every technical s k i l l which he possessed to express the individual distinctiveness of each nature object. He wished to express each of them so vividly that we would realize the inscape and with him feel the instress or impact which that inscape produced. This desire to express the real inscape by? the word led Hopkins to the use of what are generally called his 29Arthur Mizener, \"Victorian Hopkins,\" Kenyon Critics, .p.103. - 15 -\"oddities\"\u00E2\u0080\u0094his peculiar use of words, his peculiar ordering of these words into sentences, and his various techniques of writing. Each of these aimed to do the same thing\u00E2\u0080\u0094to reproduce what he aaw in its distinctive individuality. Hopkins' original use of words was an effort to arrive at the one correct word which would express the inscape of the object. Thus ordinary, commonplace words were used i f they suited his purpose. But, i f he found i t necessary, he employed l i t t l e used but s t i l l acceptable words. He might, by a fresh and original use of an obsolete word, revive i t . When such means failed there was s t i l l the old English custom of combining words to make new compounds or even of coining new words. Because Hopkins habitually used concrete words he was able to create vivid pictures of nature. Almost any of his nature poems may be used to exemplify this original use of words; one of the most ef-fective is \"Inversnaid\" with its \"darkness burn.\"(tVT, IT). Hopkins' techniques also contribute to the same effect. He left out unnecessary words, to make his descriptions more startling, he changed the order of words in a sentence. The same idea of obtaining simplicity and of getting nearer to the language of common speech influenced Hopkins' use of alliteration and as-sonance. It is worth noting, too, that his use of accentual verse and sprung rhythm tends towards the same effect, though a separate essay would be necessary to pursue even a few of the ramifications of Hopkins' prosody. Such devices do seem confusing at f i r s t , but when Hopkins' technique is understood, much of the difficulty of his poetry disappears. Frequently, the meaning of a whole poem \"explodes,\" as he wished i t to do. As complicated as Hopkins' poetry appears, especially to the uninitiated, there is a key to its understanding, a key which Hopkins himself gave to Bridges.3\u00C2\u00B0 Writing to Bridges concerning \"The Eurydice,\" he tells him to \"take breath and read i t with the ears, as I always wished to be read, and my verse becomes a l l right. \"31 Every poem has a sense pattern and a sound pattern. While most Victorian poets tended to emphasize the sense pattern, Hopkins realized that, i f poetry is read aloud with proper pronunciation, rhythm, and modulation, the sound pattern will both complement the sense pattern and be a source of beauty in i t s e l f . 3 2 To develop the meaning of his poems, Hopkins made such con-stant use of nature that i t may be considered as one of the main motifs of his poetry. If i t is classified according to its nature content, Hopkins' poetry falls into three main catagories: simple nature poetry, poetry of praise, and poetry celebrating God's power, justice and mercy. In the simple nature poetry, Hopkins is primarily concerned with the expression of inscape in nature, 3 Q l e t t e r s to Robert Bridges, p.50 3-1-Letters to Robert Bridges, p .7 9 . 3 2 S e e J. K. Mathison \"The Poetic Theory of Gerard Manley Hppkins, Philological Quarterly. XXVI (January 2 6 , 1 9 * + 7 ) , 2 1 - 3 5 . - 17 -while in the poetry of praise he uses nature to express the \"Grandeur of God.\" A number of the poems of this second group also express both the power of God and man's consequent dependence on Him. These serve as a natural link between the poetry of praise and the poetry expressive of God's power, justice and mercy. To this third group belong Hopkins' most celebrated poems, the \"terrible sonnets.\" To use nature as a vehicle to express his emotions and beliefs, Hopkins had to so possess his environ-ment that nature can almost be said to control his thoughts and feelings. By following the above division of Hopkins' poems, a survey of the use which Hopkins makes of nature in his poetry should be at once more comprehensive and more enlightening. In this survey, the logical starting point is the discussion of Hopkins' simple nature poetry. CHAPTER II NATURE POETRY: \"WHAT IS ALL THIS JUICE AND ALL THIS JOY?\" The actual beauty of nature was a perennial source of in-spiration to Hopkins, The reading of his nature poetry conveys the impression that he had a complete knowledge and under-standing of what he was describing and that he was anxious to pass on its inscape to his reader. He wrote from experience, from a lifetime of watching and listening; his seeing eye and tireless awareness allowed him to absorb the beauty of every object he contemplated. Only after a scene was vividly impressed on his mind did Hopkins look for words with which to express i t , \"It was because Hopkins saw the world with a child Ts piercing innocence as though i t had only newly been created that his images are so concrete, his words so charged with new meaning.\"1 His was the \"joyous vision of a world in which a l l things are seen to be good.\"2 Like Keats he was driven \"by the urge to express beauty in its most perfect form.\"3 in writing, Hopkins A^nne Margaret Angus, \"Gerard Manley Hopkins,\" Canadian Poetry, III (June 193d), 14. 2Elizabeth Jennings, \"The Unity of Incarnation,\" The Dublin Review, No. 4 ^ 4 (Summer I960), 184. 3Tad W. Guzie, S. J., \"Are Modern Poets Morbid?\" Catholic World, CLXXV (April 1957), 2 9 . - 19 -came to grips with nature, capturing in each description one facet, one moment of the beauty of the world; and to his minute observations he gave an intense response. In every picture Hopkins drew, he strove primarily to capture the inscape. If he devised new means of poetic description, i t was so that he could more fully realize the inscape of the scene before him. Inscape was the purpose of his intense preoccupation both with words and with the technicalities of writing. .. . !. . . . . . . . I C. Day Lewis has pointed out that readers find Hopkins ob-scure for two reasons.^ First, \"the world which Hopkins saw in such vivid detail is a world of which the modern metropolitan reader is becoming growingly ignorant.\"5 We simply do not have the awareness that Hopkins had. The second reason is Hopkins' concentrated method of writing which makes i t difficult to follow \"his lightning dashes from image to image.\"6 Many of Hopkins' sonnets illustrate these \"lightning .dashes\" by the abrupt change of thought at the beginning of the sestet. Hopkins' concentrated style of poetry is closely connected with his at-tention to words and with his use of poetic techniques. Con-sequently, the reader must expect to find every word, even the most insignificant, important enough to deserve his close at-tention,, and he must also learn to recognize and evaluate I ^C. Day Lewis, A Hope for Poetry (Oxford, 1934), p.12. 5Cfei':; \u00C2\u00A9rieirsoia., \"Passionate Science,\" Times Literary Supplement, No. .2772 (March. 13, 1955), 165. ^Lewis, p.12. - 20 -Hopkinsian techniques. If Hopkins' many nature descriptions could be surveyed as different panels on a canvas, three facts would immediately be evident. Because of Hopkins' peculiar use of inscape, each scene would be a recognizable and independent unit. Each panel would be so unique as to be a \"Hopkinsian\" panel. John Wain would say that the panels illustrated \"the modern doctrines of irreducibility and simultaneity.\"? The forceful, dynamic quality of each scene would be impressive, for Hopkins, being more than an observer of nature, is able to make others see and appreciate the beauty he sees. \"Hopkins catches the material alive and thereby evokes a significant response.\"^ Even when Hopkins used nature as a springboard for other ideas, the actual nature image possesses a beauty of its own. Finally, there would be, almost as pivotal points of Hopkins' description, certain recurring themes of which the most prominent would be themes of water, of the seasons, of day and night and the heavens, of flowers and trees, and of birds. . Hopkins' descriptions of water are varied. The light and '\"An Idiom of Desperation,\" Proceedings of the British^ Academy, XLV (1959), 190. % . N. Lees, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Pelican Guide' to English Literature, VI (Great Britain: Pelican Book, 1958), 382. * \u00E2\u0080\u00A2* 21 -graceful \"Penmaen Pool\" is a courtesy poem, a thank-you note written \"For the Visitor's Book at the Inn.\" The pool nestles among the towering mountains which hob and nob to \"halve the bowl of Penmaen Pool\". The contrast of seasons is effective. In the summer pool, the almost fairy-like landscape rides \"topsyturvy.\" But the brightly shining stars disappear, and the swiftly tumbling Mawddock has a different appearance in stormy weather when \"raindrop-roundels looped together\" lace \"the face of Penmaen Pool.\" Winter brings the \"furred snows\" which, \"charged tuft above tuft, tower/ From darksome, darksome Penmaen Pool\" while the visitors within the Inn drink the ale like \"goldy foam/ That frocks an oar in Penmaen Pool.\" (XXIX, 3 5 - 3 6 ) . Although \"Penmaen Pool\" is not one of Hopkins' better poems, i t does i l -lustrate Hopkins' ability to use words and Welsh names effectively. Its live, vibrant quality depends upon its imagery and its Anglo-Saxon vocabulary. \"Inversnaid\" has forever captured the beauty of that l i t t l e Scotch stream. This is the type of scene best suited to Hopkins' descriptive powers, for i t is nature in motion. The poem is an excellent illustration of Hopkins' effective use of words, and of his poetic techniques. The\"darksome burn\" is \"horseback brown\"\u00E2\u0080\u0094not just brown like a horse, but \"horseback brown\" to give the connotative impression of the stream riding down its \"rollrock highroad.\" (LVI, 2 ) . These fi r s t two lines are, in themselves, a complete picture of the tumultuous dark brown --*22 -stream sweeping down the side of the mountain and carrying even small pebbles with i t . Hopkins describes how the water, passing through coop and comb, separates into channels, like fluting, just before i t falls into the lake. One of Hopkins' own drawings illustrates just such fluting.^ As the froth turns and \"twindles\" over the broth of a pool \"so pitchblack, f e l l -frowning\" that i t seems to drown even Despair, the dark pool is suggestive of a l l the evils of witchcraft. \"Twindles,\"'5 is a typical Hopkinsian coinage, The water flashes down the side of the mountain where \"degged with dew, dappled with dew/ Are the groins of the braes that the brook treads through.\" Two words here attract our attention: \"degged\" and \"groins.\" \"Degged\" is a dialectal word meaning \"sprinkled.\" \"Groin,\" which formerly meant any depression, is used by Hopkins to des-cribe the ravines through which the brook flows. Both words con-vey an exact impression. As i t flows, the stream sprinkles drops of water on the heather, the fern, and the ash. But how different from this prosaic statement is Hopkins': \"Wiry heathpacks, f l i t -ches of fern,/ And the bead-bonny ash that sits over the burn.\" The last stanza of the poem is a truly Hopkinsian plea that a l l this beauty may not be lost: \"Let them be left/ 0 let them be left, wildness and wet/ Long live the weeds and the wilderness '9\u00C2\u00BBAt the Baths of Rosenlaui\u00E2\u0080\u0094July 18 (1863),\" Journals. Plate 23facing: pages. 456 and 457. - . 2 3 -yet.\" (XVI, 15-16) . \"Inversnaid\" pictures a stream somewhat similar to Tennyson's stream in \"In the Valley of the Cauteretz.\" But the poems are essentially different. Hopkins' concentration on the scene before him gives greater intensity to \"Inyersnaid.\" Tennyson's stream flashes white and deepens its voice \"with the deepening of the night.\" But i t misses the dynamic quality which Hopkins gives to his \"darksome burn\" roaring down its highroad. Tennyson seems to stand by the water, his mind too absorbed with regret for former beauty and happiness to give undivided atten-tion to the stream before him, while Hbpkins is captivated by the actual beauty of; the scene. \"Inversnaid\" is a direct, simple nature poem in which Hopkins has caught the beauty of the mountain stream and has added its particular beauty\u00E2\u0080\u0094its in-scape\u00E2\u0080\u0094to the world's \"treasury of beauty.\" \"Inversnaid\" and \"Penmaen Pool\" are both, primarily, nature poems. In his non-nature poems, Hopkins frequently uses the sea as his setting. Both \"The Wreck of the Deutschland\" and \"The Loss of the Eurydice\" picture the sea vividly. The Deutschland travels across the merciless sea as the \"Wiry and white-fiery and whirlwind-swivelled snow/ spins to the widow-making, unchilding, unfathering deeps.\" (XXVIII, 1 0 3 - 1 0 4 ) . Here, every work is telling. Not only does this description picture the storm at sea, but i t conveys overtones of the terror caused by - 24 -the shipwreck and of the sorrow experienced by the victims 1 relatives. Similarly, the Eurydice, a training ship for officers, sailing over the tranquil waters between the Isle of Man and England on \"a blue March day,\" met a sudden destructive storm. The ship capsized, death teeming in,\"at her portholes\" and racing \"down decks, round messes of mortals.\" (XLI, 40). The intensity of the storm is expressed in such phrases as \"The champ-white water-in-a-wallow,\" \"the revelling snowstorm,\" and \"after hours of wintry waves.\" Winston Churchill, a young lad in 1878, had stood admiring the troop ship a few minutes before the storm. Churchill's description of the storm is in close agreement with the description in Hopkins' poem: One day when we were out on the c l i f f s near Ventnor, we saw a great splendid ship with a l l her sails set, passing the shore . . . . Then, a l l of a sudden there were black clouds and wind and the fi r s t drops of a storm . . . . The next time I went out on those c l i f f s there was no splendid ship in f u l l sail, but three black masts were pointed out to me, sticking up out of the water in a stark way. She was the Eurydice. She had capsized in this very squall and gone to the bottom with three hundred soldiers on board.10 Both \"The Wreck of the Deutschland\" and \"The Loss of the Eurydice\" display the power of the sea. In both, there is the tragedy of the inevitable as man fights against a force greater than himself. But this sense of tragedy is mingled with a -^Winston S. ' Churchill, A Roving Commission, ,New York: Scribner's Sons, 1940), 6. LI do riot believe that the similarity of these descriptions has yet been pointed out.] 25 -feeling of admiration for the strength and greatness of the sea during the storm. Besides these poems in which water is a controlling theme, other poems contain sample descriptions of water. Such poems as \"Winter with the Gulf Stream,\" \"The Sea and the Skylark,\" \"As Kingfishers Catch Fire . . . .,\" \"Epithalamion,\" and some of the \"terrible sonnets\" vary greatly but in each of them Hopkins sees water as a source of imagery. In the second group of poems, Hopkins uses the seasons for his setting. These poems illustrate the same effective use of words as do the poems about water. But, since further elaboration of this point is unnecessary, attention, may now be turned to other methods by which Hopkins sought to express in-stress and inscape in his poetry. References to spring are frequent in HopkinsA writings. The sonnet, \"Spring,\" embodies the whole spirit of the springtime within its octave. Minute descriptions\u00E2\u0080\u0094the weeds in wheels, the blue eggs of the thrush, the playful lambs\u00E2\u0080\u0094make the scene attractive. To these spring sights Hopkins adds spring sounds, particularly the song of the thrush. This whole world of fresh-ness and innocence and rebirth is summed up in Hopkins' question: \"What is a l l this juice and a l l this joy?\", and in his answer: \"A strain of earth's sweet being/ In Eden garden.\" - 26 -In other poems, Hopkins makes short, but vivid, references to spring. In \"The Wreck of the Deutschland\" he speaks of \"pied and peeled May.\" (XXVIII, 2 0 4 ) . The Eurydice sails \"on a blue March day\" when the bright sun \"lanced fire in the heavenly bay.\" (XLI,22). \"The May Magnificat\" emphasizes spring as a time of rebirth and growth. Hopkins answers the question, \"What is spring?\" by \"Growth in everything\u00E2\u0080\u0094/ Flesh and fleece, fur and feather./ Grass and greenworld a l l together.\" (XLII, 16-1 8 ) . The alliteration of these lines serves a further purpose of telescoping a l l categories of living things so that i t is possible for the reader to visualize them a l l simultaneously. \"Hurrahing in Harvest\" may be considered a companion poem to \"Spring.\" Just as Hopkins sees spring as the time for joy because of the rebirth of a l l nature, so he finds autumn a time for \"hurrahing\" because nature has reached its fulfilment. Only four lines are given to the actual description of the autumn. Nevertheless, the picture is a complete one. Stocks \"barbarous in beauty\" are set against a background of \"silk-sack clouds\" which wander across the \"wind-walks of the sky\" like \"meal-drift moulded ever and melted across skies,\" (XXXVIII, 2 - 4 ) f while the blue autumn haze on the h i l l s is a \"very-violet- sweet . \" (XXXVIII, 1 6 ) . This is autumn as we know and love i t . In some poems, Hopkins is able to express his inscape very concisely. In \"Spring and Fa l l \" Hopkins' inscape of autumn is given in a single word by describing Goldengrove as T 27 -\"unleaving.\" (LV, 2). \"Epithalamion\" describes a typical summer scene, a swimming hole where carefree boys bathe in the \"candy colored,\" \"glue-gold brown marbled\" waters of the river. (CXXI, 5). The peak of Hopkins' description is the unexpected, but most ap-propriate, picture of the divers: . . . . how the boys . With dare and with downdolphinry and bellbright bodies 'huddling out, Are earthworld, airworld, waterworld thorough hurled . . . (CXXI, 16-18). The enjoyment experienced by the bathers is further emphasized by the description of the stranger in which Hopkins obtains his desired effect both by the unusual position of words as \"He ding/His bleached both and woolwoven wear,\" and by the minute description of him removing his shoes. In \"Epitalamion\" Hopkins uses the particular appeal of bathing, \"summer's sovereign good,,\" to suggest the universal appeal of a l l things in summer. By describing one particular aspect of its attraction, Hopkins gives to his reader a realization of the attractiveness of a l l summer. The same ability to bring the whole scene before the reader is found in many of Hopkins' poems describing night and day, the moonrise, the clouds and the sunset. \"The Starlight Night\" is a poem of such great beauty that even Yvor Winters calls i t - 28 -a \" b r i l l i a n t \" d e s c r i p t i o n . H Hopkins makes use of two tech-niques i n building his v i v i d picture of the sky at night: the emphatic r e p e t i t i o n of the word \"look,\" which catches the reader's attention immediately; and the use of a series of f a n c i f u l comparisons. The stars are \" f i r e - f o l k s i t t i n g i n the a i r , \" \"boroughs,\" \" c i r c l e - c i t a d e l s , \" \"diamond delves,\" \"elves'-eyes,\" \"a May-mess on an orchard bough.\" (XXXII, 2 f f . ) . The ef f e c t of these accumulated comparisons i s an impression of beauty of a d i s t i n c t l y f a i r y - l i k e q u a l i t y . The brightness of the stars i s contrasted with the blackness of the heavens. The stars are l i k e diamonds shining i n the dark p i t of the sky, while the s t a r - f i l l e d sky i s l i k e the \"wind-beat whitebeam\" or l i k e \" a i r y abeles.\" The leaves of the whitebeam are dark green on top and l i g h t grey underneath so that, when the wind blows upon the tree, the leaves become dark surfaces streaked with l i g h t . The abele, or white poplar, seems to wave l i k e a flame or a f l a r e when the wind r u s t l e s i t s leaves.^ The stars, clustered i n the dark heaven, resemble \"flake-doves,\" or doves as small as snowflakes which hover and f l o a t i n the a i r . In t h i s poem, Hopkins i s describing a sky such as he actually saw one evening. He has recorded i t i n h i s Journal f o r August 17, 1874: HYvpr Winters, \"Gerard Manley Hopkins,\" Yvor Winters on Modern Poets (New York: Meridian Book, 1959), 165\u00E2\u0080\u0094hereafter::.' c i t e d as Yvor Winters. - 2 9 -As we drove home, the stars came out thick. I leaned back to look at them and,\"my heart opening more than\" usual praised Our Lord to and in whom a l l that beauty comes home.12 The fragment \"Moonrise\" is developed by using one sustained metaphor of the poem. Hopkins, rising \"in the white and the walk of the morning,\" (XGIX, 1 ) , was arrested and aroused by what he saw when he looked out of his window\u00E2\u0080\u0094the sudden sight of the waning moon which, \"dwindled and thinned to the fringe of a fingernail,\" appeared as i f i t had stepped from the stool and drawn back from the barrow of dark Maenefa the Mountain. The moon, seemingly caught on the edge of the mountain, since a \"cusp s t i l l clasped him, a flute yet fanged him,\" appeared to pause over the mountain, shedding a light which, though not too bright, completely awakened the poet. Hopkins contrasts the lovely but lusterless moon with its dark mountain background. Alliteration, as in \"the white and the walk of the morning,\" and such assonance as \"dwindled and thinned\" add to the poetic effects. What Hopkins intended to do with this fragment is un-certain. Perhaps he intended to develop some further contrast between the moon disentangling itself from the mountain and his own mind disentangling itself from slumber, for in the last line he teils us that the \"desirable sight . . . parted me leaf I 2Journals, p . 2 5 4 . -00 -from leaf, divided me eyelid and eyelid from slumber.\" In other poems, Hopkins writes of the beauty of the Elwy Valley, of his regret that the Binsey poplars have been felled, and of the sight of lanterns moving in the dark. One of the most beautiful poems of this group is \"Spelt from Sibyl's Leaves,\" in which, almost to the music of the pipe-organ, Hopkins pictures evening deepening into night. The leaves, pointed against the sky, \"black, white,\" reminded Hopkins of the leaves on which Sibyl wrote her prophecies. Earth lays aside her variegated colors, as \"Evening\"\u00E2\u0080\u0094\"Earnest, earthless, equal, attuneable, / Vaulty, voluminous . .\u00E2\u0080\u00A2 . stupendous\"\u00E2\u0080\u0094 \"strains to be time's vast/ Womb-of-all, hearse-of-all night.\" Proper appreciation of such a poem requires, not only the under-standing of its words, but. also the skilled reading which Hopkins desired that his poetry should have. The group of poems descriptive of trees and flowers will need l i t t l e further comment. Attention has already been drawn to Hopkins' description of the chestnut-fan, (pp.6-7) and of the bluebell., ( p . 9 - 1 0 ) . The \"beadbonny ash\" in \"Inversnaid,\" the \"airy abeles,\" the starlight night, and the \"primrose\" feel of hands in \"The Habit of Perfection\" exemplify Hopkins' familiarity with, and love for, trees and flowers. Among the poems of this group two deserve special mention: \"Ash-boughs\" which contains the description of the bare winter trees sweeping the sky like \"talons,\" and \"Binsey Poplars\" which expresses the - 3 1 -grief that Hopkins felt when the poplar trees were felled. In a final group of nature poems Hopkins writes of birds. How he must have loved them, these \"least earthy of earthts g i f t s . \" 1 3 To Hopkins, who ever sought the dynamic qualities in ojjects, the sight of the birds on the wing must have been a thing of beauty. Three separate elements combined to give the bird the special appeal which i t had for him: its appearance, its song, and its motion. Often, a l l three elements enter into Hopkins' inscape of the bird. Hopkins' vision of the bird, like his vision of the natural world,\" was neither vague nor dreamy, but something passionately precise. \" l 1 ^ The throstle of \"The May Magnificat\" is star-^eyed and; strawberry-breasted, while the nest on which she sits contains \"bugle\" blue eggs. Hopkins describes the swallow which, resting for a moment on the moulding to take refuge from the gale, will \"unvalve or shut his vaned t a i l and sheathe at once his leger wing,\" (XCVII, 1 1 - 1 2 ) ; then he is off again as i f borne up by the wind. The songs of birds attracted Hopkins even more than did their appearance. \"With his passion for music not surprisingly \u00E2\u0080\u00A2^ Thomas P. Harrison, \"The Birds of Gerard Manley Hopkins,\" Studies in Philology. LIV (July, 1 9 5 7 ) , . W 3 . Hereafter cited as Harrison. llfPass ionate Science, Times Literary Supplement. No. 2 7 7 2 (March 1 8 , 1 9 5 5 ) , 1 6 5 . ~ 32 -Hopkins cherished an interest in bird notes.\"-^ \"He loved the call of the cuckoo which opens up the springs of ear and heart and makes the whole land suddenly blossom out; [and] the thrilling song of the skylark that climbs longingly into the sunlight and sinks down in happiness.\"!6 while His rash-fresh re-winded new-skeined score in'crisps of curl off wild winch whirl, and pour And pelt music, t i l l none's to s p i l l nor spend. (XXXV, 5-8). In \"Spring\" he describes the song of the thrush: i t \"does so rinse and wring/ The ear, i t strikes like lightnings to hear him sing.\"(XXXIII, 4-5). Hopkins' greatest achievement in reproducing the songs of birds is the fragment \"The Woodlark\" which Father Bliss has so 17 successfully refashioned and concluded. Though Dr. Gardner is persuaded that Hopkins is describing the tree p i p i t , ^ which is sometimes known as a woodlark, Harrison objects to this for two reasons. The conclusive couplet, \"Round a ring, around a ring/ And while I sail (must listen) I sing,\" describes \"the ^5Harrison, p.449. l 6 G i sbert Kranz, \"Gerard Manley Hopkins,\" translated from French\" by J. R. Foster, Modern Christian Literature, Vol.CXIX of Twentieth Century Encyclopedia of Catholicism (New York: Hawthorne Books, 1 9 o 0 ) , 122. ; -^Notes, \"\u00E2\u0080\u00A2 Poems, p.256. For Father Bliss* explanation of his arrangements see The Month, CLXVII ( 1 9 3 6 ) , 5 2 8 - 5 3 5 . 18Harrison, p.454. - 3 3 -woodlark's habit of spiralling upward to a great height\" and not the tree pipit's \"upward flutter\" to a lesser height. Secondly, \"The tree pipit's s h r i l l canary-like notes differ markedly from the sweet and mellow strains of the woodlark which Hopkins' lines more nearly suggest.\" This poem is \"a tour de force.\" It is as i f Hopkins wanted to see i f he could really imitate the woodlark. Gweneth L i l l y cites \"The Woodlark\" as an example of intricate alliteration and rhyme extending over several lines. The lines The ear in milk, lush the sash, And crush-silk poppies aflash, The blood-gush blade-gash Flame-rash\" rudred Bud shelling or broad-shed Tatter-tassel-tangled and dingle-a-dangled Dandy-hung dainty head. . contain three sets of internal rimes (milk/silk, lush/crush, rud/bud) while \"rash\" rhymes with the end-rhyme gash which in turn forms half rhymes with lush, crush,, and gush.19 While the intricate stanza form does bear out Lily's contention that the stanza, not the line, is the unit of the poem, i t also illustrates Hopkins' use of rhyme and alliteration to obtain the desired musical effects. In phrases such as \"blood-gush, Blade-gash,\" Hopkins makes use of \"cynghanedd,\" a Welsh device 19Gweneth Li l l y , \"Welsh Influence on the Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins,\" Modern Language Review. XXXVIII (July, 1 9 4 3 ) , 201. - 34 - . somewhat similar to our internal rhyme. It is obtained by the alliteration of vowels which, in Welsh, produce an audible chime. If the poem is read correctly, and with no stop between \"The ear\" and \"head\", \"The Woodlark\" does imitate the song of the woodlark. In this respect i t is, as has been noted,* similar to Hilaire Belloc's \"Tarantella,\" which \"with its in-ternal rhymes and shifting rhythms, is a sk i l l f u l approximation of the dance which gives the poem its name.\"^ Further evidence of Hopkins' keen observations of bird songs is found in his writing about the cuckoo. Besides the fragment, \"Repeat that, repeat,\" imitating the cuckoo's song, an extant letter to Bridges contains a f u l l discussion of the cuckoo's method of singing.^1 Hopkins' birds are seldom at rest when they sing. The flight of the bird, soaring high in the heavens in happy abandon, must have seemed to Hopkins the symbol of that freedom of spirit and carefree abandon for which he himself so longed. Even the skylark, now \"scanted in a dull cage\" has been a \"dare-gale\" skylark. In its freedom, the \"sweet fowl\" had need of no rest but \"babbles as i t drops down to its nest.\" Hopkins wrote two poems on the skylark: \"The Sea and the Skylark\" 20Modern British Poetry\u00E2\u0080\u0094Mid Century Edition, Edited Louis U n t e r m e y e r (iMew lork, 1950), 167. ^Letters to Bridges, p. 145. - 3 5 -(XXXV), and \"The Caged Skylark.\" (XXXIX). In \"The Sea and the Skylark\" Hopkins describes the skylark's song as \"headlong, exciting snatches of song, \"forever old yet new, descending to the earth in \"skeins\" or \"coils\" and forever vying with the sound of the sea. Hopkins' skylark differs from that of both Shelley and Wordsworth. To Shelley, the skylark is a \"blithe spirit,\" \"an unembodied joy,\" in which he recognized the symbol of that supernatural happiness which he longs to share. To Wordsworth, the skylark, \"ethereal minstrel, pilgrim of the sky,\" is a \"type of the wise who soar but never roam/ True to the kindred points of heaven and home.\" But to Hopkins, the skylark remains a creature of nature. He loves the bird for what i t i s , and he finds in i t a \"kindred spirit\" whether.the bird is free, as in \"The Sea and the Skylark\" or whether, as in \"The Caged Skylark,\" i t is a prisoner in a cage. At the same time, he sees in the skylark a reflection of its Creator. Their poems on the skylark bring into relief the characteristics of Shelley, Wordsworth, and Hopkins as nature poets. The three poets suggest one another both by resemblance and by contrast. All three, attracted by the skylark and its song, have produced nature poems of permanent beauty; while, to 22see Hopkins' letter to Bridges, Poems, p.227. _ - 3 6 - _ a l l three, the skylark, was symbolic of other values. Their poems on the skylark are therefore comparable both for their poetic style and for their underlying symbolism. Shelley's \"To a Skylark\" is a lyric, written with a l l the imagery which his rich imagination could supply. The reader, carried away by the sensuous appeal of color and sound, shares Shelley's enthusiasm for the skylark. The actual picture of the skylark is vague and aetherialized through its song; i t seems more of a spirit than a bird, the embodiment of joy. Wordsworth's \"To a Skylark\" is a sonnet whose calm emotion has an intellectual appeal. The \"kindred points of heaven and home\" are focal points around which is centered both the bird's l i f e and our own. The masculine strength of the quiet, unadorned language draws us to Wordsworth's skylark. In \"The Sea and the Skylark,\" Hopkins contrasts the song of the skylark with the sound of the sea. The language is forceful, but the force arises, not from passionate love as in Shelley's poem, nor from reason and intellect as in Wordsworth's, but from its dynamic quality. Movement and song combine to give \"Hopkins' skylark l i f e . In comparison, Shelley's skylark appears more remote and impersonal; Wordsworth's skylark is more human; while Hopkins* skylark appeals to us through the in-scape which i t expresses. At the risk of carrying the comparison beyond the realm of \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 - 37 -nature poetry, and into the realm of the metaphysical, a fur-ther parallel may be drawn from the poets' attitudes towards the skylark. A l l three poets see the skylark as a part of the natural world, but a l l three differ in their interpretation of the significance of the skylark. To Shelley the skylark is the outward manifestation of an inner divine beauty; i t is not a bird but a spirit. Shelley's desire to imitate the skylark and to be identified with i t gives the skylark an almost super-natural character. Wordsworth sees an interrelation between the skylark and man: both must be true to heaven and home. Wordsworth believes that man can, through mystic union, par-ticipate in the spiritual activity which, he believes, under-lies nature. While his skylark is in union with the Divine, i t i s , at the same time, a companion to whom he can talk as an equal, and in whom he can find the echo of his own feelings. To Hopkins, as has been discussed in Chapter I, a l l nature remains nature but, as such, i t is a revelation, an utterance of its Creator. Because Hopkins has that peculiar ability which allows him to see nature on two distinct levels at once\u00E2\u0080\u0094the natural and the supernatural\u00E2\u0080\u0094 he can enjoy and admire the skylark for its physical beauty and for its actual song and, at the same time, contemplate the God who fashioned i t . A l l three poets sought the divine in nature: Shelley groped blindly towards the divine force which he instinctively recognized in nature; Wordsworth set his foot firmly on the path in search of the divine; Hopkins - 38 -reached the goal. Hopkins' sonnet, \"The Windhover,\" has been widely discussed. Its fourteen l i n e s have been analyzed and interpreted i n almost as many ways as there have been c r i t i c s writing about i t . \"The Windhover\" i s recognized as one of Hopkins' f i n e s t poems. He himself regarded i t as the best thing he had ever written. No inte r p r e t a t i o n i s completely s a t i s f a c t o r y to every reader f o r \"the poem i s a good one and therefore gives r e l a t i v e s a t i s f a c t i o n to our several r e l a t i v e demands.\"23 On the l e v e l of simple nature poetry, the sonnet i s an excellent example of Hopkins' close observation of nature and of his a b i l i t y to describe exactly what he saw. The windhover, or European k e s t r e l , i s a l i t t l e l arger, but sim i l a r to, the American sparrow hawk. It i s dark i n color, brownish above and buff below. Like a l l birds, i t occasionally pauses i n f l i g h t , but i t has the ad d i t i o n a l habit of hovering from twenty to t h i r t y feet above the ground to look f o r f o o d . 2 ^ Three d i f f e r e n t movements of the bi r d are distinguished by Harrison. F i r s t , i t hovers: \"his r i d i n g / of the r o l l i n g under-2 3 F r e d e r i c k L. Gwynn, \"Hopkins' 'The Windhover' : A New S i m p l i f i c a t i o n , \" Modern Language Notes. LXVI (June 1951), 3 6 6 . 24-See Harrison p.458 f f . f o r the description of the bi r d and the explanation of i t s f l i g h t . - 3 9 -n e a t h h i m s t e a d y a i r . \" H a r r i s o n c o m m e n t s o n t h i s a c t : T h e p o e t h a s d w e l t u p o n t h e h o v e r i n g a c t \u00E2\u0080\u0094 t h e u n i q u e h a b i t o f t h e ' b i r d w h i c h e n a b l e d h i m t o c a t c h t h e b i r d f l y i n g , a n d y e t n o t f l y i n g a g a i n s t t h e m o r n i n g s k y . 2 5 T h e s e c o n d m o v e m e n t o f t h e b i r d i s a f o r w a r d o n e : \" s t r i d i n g h i g h t h e r e , how h e r u n g u p o n t h e r e i n o f a w i m p l i n g w i n g . \" A f t e r t h e s t r i d e i t m u s t s t a r t h o v e r i n g \" a g a i n , t h i s hawk\" w h i c h i s r i d e r a n d h o t s t e e d , i t m u s t r i n g a g a i n u p o n t h e r e i n o f i t s w i n g , t o k e e p p l a c e i n a n d o n t h e w i n d , i t s s t e e d a n d i t s e n v i r o n m e n t . 2 6 T h e t h i r d a c t o f t h e k e s t r e l i s a d o w n w a r d m o v e m e n t t h e n o f f , o f f f o r t h o h s w i n g , A s a s k a t e ' s h e e l s w e e p s s m o o t h o n a b o w - b e n d : t h e h u r l R e b u f f e d t h e b i g w i n d . T h i s t h i r d m o v e m e n t , d e p i c t i n g t h e b i r d ' s \" f l i g h t d o w n w a r d i s f o l l o w e d b y t h e s h a r p t u r n n e c e s s a r y f o r h o v e r i n g . \" 2 7 . B y i t s ^ H a r r i s o n , p . 4 5 9 . F o r a n e x p l a n a t i o n , H a r r i s o n c o m m e n t s o n t h e b i r d ' s h o v e r i n g a c t ( p . 4 5 8 ) : To p e r f o r m t h i s d i s t i n c t i v e f e a t i t n e c e s s a r i l y \" f a c e s t h e w i n d a n d f l i e s w i t h t h e e x a c t v e l o c i t y o f t h e w i n d ; t o r e m a i n s t a t i o n a r y w i t h r e f e r e n c e t o t h e g r o u n d , t h e b i r d s h a r p l y d e p r e s s e s i t s t a i l , w h i c h i n c r e a s e s t h e l i f t i n g s u r f a c e s . B y f l y i n g f o r w a r d s h o r t l y w i t h g l i d e a n d b e a t o r b y s h o o t i n g d o w n w a r d , t h e n t u r n i n g s u d d e n l y i n t o t h e w i n d , i t s h i f t s t h e a r e a t o b e i n s p e c t e d . When i t s i g h t s f o o d , i t g l i d e s d o w n a t a n a n g l e , t h e n r i s e s t o b e g i n a g a i n h o v e r i n g o y e r a n e w s p o t . ^ G e o f f r e y G r i g s o n , G e r a r d M a n l e y H o p k i n s : W r i t e r s a n d T h e i r W o r k . N o . '$9 ( L o n d o n : B r i t i s h C o u n c i l a n d N a t i o n a l B o o k L e a g u e , 1 9 5 5 ) , 27. . 2 7 H a r r i s o n , p . 4 5 8 . - 40 -description of three movements of the bird, the octave of the poem gives an inscape of the bird in flight. The poet is stirred by the \"achieve of, the mastery of the thing.\" This inscape is further summed up in the sestet by the words \"brute\" and \"buckle.\" \"The marvellous adaptation of wing and wind, the proud activity of the bird seeking food: these are beautiful in a brute unawareness; they a l l unite\u00E2\u0080\u0094buckle\u00E2\u0080\u0094into a single integrated whole.\"28 \"The Windhover\" is a difficult poem. Several interpretations of the movements of the bird are possible. The meaning of the poem is further obscured because the poet uses key words with several different possible meanings,, and because the comparisons in the last tercet are ambiguous. If \"The Windhover\" is considered on the level of nature poetry, i t is a poem of exaltation and praise, with a l l its terms taken from chivalry and falconry. The theme of the poem at this level is simple: the poet sees the bird, he is exhilarated by i t and describes i t in terms of nobility. The windhover is a \"dauphin\"\u00E2\u0080\u0094the prince of the morning. The use of chivalric terms allows the poet to suggest connotations of beauty and freedom. The whole description must, then, be interpreted as an inscape of beauty and freedom. Geoffrey Harrison, p.462. - 41 -Grigson makes the important comment that in no critique, down to the most recent interpretations, does \"any commentator seem to have studied, as a watcher of the bird, the one activity upon which the fullness of the poem must hang.\"29 The.poet sees the windhover as etched or \"drawn\" against the dapple sky. This meaning is preferable to that of the bird being attracted by the dawn because such attraction would necessarily take from the freedom with which the poet seeks to invest the bird. The three movements of the bird support Hopkins' inscape of beauty and freedom. The kestrel hovers in the air by riding against the wind, at the same velocity as the wind; i t strides high as, by a forward motion, i t rides the \"wimpled air,\" and \"reins\" i t as one might a charger; then the bird swoops, as a skater swoops around a corner. All three movements reveal the kestrel as the master, the possessor, of his environment; and in this way a l l three are an integral part of the inscape of freedom and beauty. In a l l three movements of the kestrel, the poet is drawn by \"the achieve of, the mastery of the thing.\" In the sestet, the natural meaning which corresponds to this, interpretation requires that \"buckle\" be taken to mean the imperative \"draw together \u00E2\u0080\u0094 i n t o one.\" This buckling increases rather than diminishes the beauty and freedom of the bird, for i t brings together the windhover's beauty as i t hovers in the air, its valor as in pride i t rides the wimpled air, and its act, or swoop, of which the plume is a symbol. This \"buckling\" 2 9Grigson, p.2 7 . - 42 -increases rather than diminishes the beauty and the freedom of the bird. Besides the poems already mentioned, many others could be studied as simple nature poetry. \"Pied Beauty,\" which belongs to this group, has the characteristic freshness of Hopkins' nature poetry; i t is also an expression of Hopkins' theory of the individually distinctive quality of each object. When-ever Hopkins writes of nature, the essential characteristic of his work is his awareness of each and every object in nature. This awareness, cultivated by careful observation, makes him see objects in such minute detail that each object becomes individually distinct from every other object of the same species. Furthermore, this individually distinctive object, which he so carefully observes, is to him worthy of detailed and painstaking description. The desire to describe exactly what he sees forces Hopkins to search for the correct word and the proper turn of phrase; and this searching effort on the part of Hopkins makes his poetry so appealing that he communicates his own enthusiasm to his reader. In the measure of his capacity, each reader shares Hopkins' own great love of a l l nature. But Hopkins does not stop with the actual, physical des-cription of what he sees. Physical beauty is, as i t were, the outward shell which encloses the inner core of spiritual - 4 3 -beauty. Spiritual values are present, at least implicitly, in , a l l Hopkins' nature poetry; in many poems, these values form the express purpose of his writing. Hopkins believes that poetry should have an \"undertnought\" as well as an \"over-thought:\" There are usually . . . two strains of thought running\" together and like counterpointed; the overthought, that which everybody, editors,see . \". . the other, the underthought, conveyed chiefly in the choice of metaphors . . .and not necessarily having^any connection with the subject in hand . . . Perhaps what I ought to say is that the underthought is\"commonly an echo or shadow of the overthbught . . . but that sometimes i t may be independent of i t . 3 0 The direct meaning of the poem constitutes \"the overthought.\" \"The underthought\" results from analogy, which is found in most of Hopkins' poems and which suggests a secondary meaning. To Hopkins, each object of the exterior, visible world was potentially capable of revealing, by the underthought suggested to the mind, the ideal type for which each object stood. The identification of \"the underthought\" with \"the overthought\" was, for Hopkins, an immediate association. His poetry suggests both \"the overthought\" and \"the underthought\" to the careful reader. Further Letters, 2 n d edition, p . 2 5 2 . - 4 4 -It is \"the underthought\" which harmonizes the writing of Hopkins with his ideals and beliefs so that he is able to use his nature poetry to express a world which he sees as \"charged with the grandeur of God.\" Nature poetry, as an expression of the praise of the Creator, will be the subject discussed in Chapter III. - 45 -CHAPTER III \"POETRY OF PRAISE: \"THE WORLD IS FILLED WITH THE GRANDEUR OF GOD\" I What Hopkins called \"the underthought\" in poetry constitutes a second level on which most of his own nature poetry may be read. Because he was so aware of a l l objects around him, Hopkins was strongly attracted by the sensuous beauty of nature. But beauty also appealed to the higher faculties of his mind. He caught the inscape of each individual object, and this in-scape, in its turn, produced an impact, or instress, upon the poet's mind. To Hopkins, each object was a unique creation of God, owing both i t s existence and its preservation to Him. The result was a twofold relationship with nature which allowed Hopkins to enjoy the sensuous beauty of nature and to hold, at the same time, a sacramental view of nature. By this sacramental view nature, as a revelation of the God who had created i t , became \"an outward sign of inward grace.\" \"Artist and priest were ever joined in his poems and when the theme was God and nature he was nature's noblest worshipper;\".l 1k. C. Collins, \"Hopkins and Eliot,\" English Literature of the Twentieth Century, fourth edition(London, 1951) , 5 9 . - 46 -Hopkins' poetic theories are compatible with his beliefs and with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. To him, the whole world, as the manifestation, the utterance of God, is f i l l e d with the grandeur of God. Each creature, by being what i t i s , praises God. This twofold aspect of God and creation\u00E2\u0080\u0094the grandeur of God manifested in a l l creation, and the creature's duty to return praise to Him\u00E2\u0080\u0094constitutes the theme of that poetry which is generally considered as Hopkins' poetry of praise. The major contention of Hopkins in this poetry is that one can know God from the beauty of the world. To understand this contention is to find the secret to much that Hopkins has written. To Hopkins, the world is charged with God's grandeur. Since Hopkins' poetic love of nature is always fused with his vision of nature's Creator, when he starts to write poetry he is able to write on a supernatural level while, at the same time, remaining fully concerned with the natural level. \"God's Grandeur\" is a direct expression of this theme. As clouds may be charged with lightning, so the whole world is charged with the grandeur of God which \"flames out\" as does shook f o i l or the gleam of crushed o i l * The stumbling block of a l l this glory is man. Hopkins sees a l l around him men who, like the people of Wordsworth's sonnet, \"The World is too much with us\" are \"getting and spending\" and have l i t t l e time to heed the beauty around them. But Hopkins' poem carries the idea a step further - 47 -than does Wordsworth's. In his sonnet Wordsworth expresses a nature-man relationship, while Hopkins expresses a God-man-nature relationship. Wordsworth sees the world as something which man may possess for the taking; Hopkins sees each unique object as possessing \"the dearest freshness deep down things\" which allows that object, by its very existence, to return glory to God. (XXXI, 10). Wordsworth's note of disgust that man should pass by a l l this glory unheeded becomes, in Hopkins, a note of hope; for the Holy Ghost, far from abandoning man, bends brooding over the earth, warming and directing i t for man. In this poem, Hopkins' usual procedure of using the octave to prepare us for the deeper thought of the sestet is particularly apt. The octave represents the earth as flashing off the glory of God like streaks of light; the sestet represents the Holy Ghost, the spirit of l i f e and of love, brooding over Hi is world and preserving both its physical and its moral beauty. Many of Hopkins' most beautiful poems owe at least part of their loveliness to this \"underthought\" of God's grandeur which seems to rise, almost spontaneously, from his vision of the natural world. In \"The Starlight Night\" the heavens become the doors beyond which \"is housed the shocks:\" beyond these doors one finds \"Christ's home, and his mother and a l l his hallows.\" (XXXII,14). The beauty of the spring day brings to the poet's mind the vision of innocent youth; he finishes his sonnet \"Spring\" with a plea that Christ may possess the innocent mind before \" i t cloud . . . - 48 --and sour with sinning.\" (XXXIII, 12 ) . \"The Sea and the Skylark\" leads to the almost inevitable contrast of these two unspoiled creations of God with man, \"Life's pride and cared-for crown\" who, having l i s t \"his innocence,\" is fast breaking down again to the dust, \"man's fir s t slime.\" When Hopkins gazes down the Valley of the Elwy with its lovely woods, waters, and meadows, he finds that \"only the inmate does not correspond.\" (XL II). No wonder a prayer rises spon-taneously to his lips that God, the lover of souls will complete his \"creature dear.\" In \"Hurrahing in Harvest\" the grandeur of the hi l l s with their blue haze is caught by the metaphor, \"And the azurous hi l l s are his world-wielding shoulder/ Majestic.\" Al l this beauty of the world, the poet tells us, was here \"and but the beholder wanting,,\" (XXXVIII, 11-12) . Hopkins' enthusiasm seems to carry him away; for, to him at least, when beauty and the beholder meet, the heart \"rears bold and bolder/ And hurls for him, 0 half hurls earth for him off under his feet.\" In \"Ribblesdale\" Hopkins again uses nature, this time to express his belief that each thing glorifies God by being what i t is created to be. (LVIII). Hopkins contrasts the river with man; the river is ever appealing to Heaven though i t has no tongue to plead, no heart to feel; man, independent and unconcerned, - 49 -goes h i s own way. In t h i s poem Hopkins represents God as \"dealing out\" c r e a t i o n \u00E2\u0080\u0094 \" h e r e a h i l l , there a dale\", God has made creation b e a u t i f u l and He goes on making i t b e a u t i f u l . Earth i s being what i t i s \u00E2\u0080\u0094 i t s own \" s e l f . \" Everything i s ; \" i s - i n g \" and how well i t \"is-es\"I But only man can r e a l i z e the sacramental value of creation; only man can in t e r p r e t t h i s \"outward sign of inward grace.\" Man i s \"earth Ts tongue, eye and heart,\" f o r the heir of a l l God created i s \"dear and dogged man.\" Yet i t i s man who has despoiled the world of the beauty of the earth. Since man does not reck h i s rod, so that a l l i s \"smeared with trade, bleared, smeared with t o i l / A n d wears man's smudge and shares man's t o i l . \" (XXXI, 4-8). Man has given Oxford i t s \" b r i c k i s h s k i r t ; \" he has f e l l e d the Binsey Poplars and destroyed that \"sweet r u r a l scene.\" Man seems so intent on h i s own purposes that he w i l f u l l y destroys nature's inscapes by thoughtlessly wasting them. It i s man alone who prompts earth to wear \" i t s brows of concern.\" \"As Kingfishers Catch F i r e \" c a r r i e s the idea of God i n creation a step fa r t h e r . \"The theme i s the i n d i v i d u a l i t y possessed by.. 3 'each mortal thing' and then as i t appears i n 'the just man.'\" Each . 2g e e George Gooden, \"Man and Nature i n Hopkins\", Notes and \u00E2\u0080\u00A2\" \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 ' Queries, CCIV (continued s e r i e s ) , No. 11 (December 1959), 453-454. 3Selma Jeanne Cohen \"As Kingfishers Catch F i r e , \" Modern Language Quarterly, XI (1950), 198\u00E2\u0080\u0094hereafter ci t e d as Cohen. - 50 -i n d i v i d u a l object produces a unique inscape of sight or sound. The b r i l l i a n t l y plumaged ki n g f i s h e r i s most i t s e l f when i t streaks through the a i r l i k e a f l a s h of red f i r e ; the i r r i d e s -cence of the dragonfly's wings belong to i t alone. Stones form \"roundy rings\" i n water. B e l l s t o l l , each with i t s own peculiar note, so that people know the b e l l by i t s tone. \"Each mortal thing does one thing and the same . . . myself i t speaks and s p e l l s ; Grying What I do i s me.\" (LVIII, 8 ) . The fact that a l l things do what i s c h a r a c t e r i s t i c of them \"brings out the par-t i c u l a r i t y of each creature, . . . and provides Hopkins with a basis f o r observing the likenesses of creatures\"^- and f o r con-templating t h e i r r elationship with the Creator. By perceiving i n the sensible image the prototype of its\"beauty, men achieve an insight into the nature of God. Thus Hopkins wrote W I do riot think I have ever seen anything more be a u t i f u l that the b l u e b e l l I have been looking at; I know the beauty of Our Lord by i t . \" \"Inscape refers to the ultimate r e a l i t y \u00E2\u0080\u0094 G o d \u00E2\u0080\u0094 b u t also to r e f l e c t i o n s of Him observable i n the world; a per-ception of \"inscape\" i n the world i s a recognition of the r e l a t i o n of any earthly object to i t s Maker. . . . And i t i s only man i n a state of grace who . . . i s capable of recognizing i t . 5 The words \"I say more\" with which Hopkins begins the sestet i n -dicate that the poet i s here speaking \"from a higher, though not a d i f f e r e n t , perspective.\"^ The true r e a l i t y of things i s under-^Cohen, p.200. 5Cohen, p.200. 6Cohen, p.202. _ - 51 -stood only by the person who sees their purpose. Man is included in a l l that is said in the octave; but, for man, there is some-thing more. Man gives glory to God by acting qs the image of his Maker. In this sense, Hopkins says of man that, when acting in grace, he \"deals out that being\" which dwells in him. A l l his actions are performed in Christ who \"plays in ten thousand places,\" and acts through man who thus becomes \"another Christ\" in the sense of the Roman Catholic doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ. Hopkins uses nature in \"God's Grandeur\" to express the idea of God's power, and in \"As Kingfishers Catch Fire\" to express the concept that a l l men have within them a supernatural l i f e . In \"Pied Beauty\" the poet uses nature to express the complementary contention that a l l creatures owe to God the duty of praise. In this poem, the poet gives glory to God for \"dappled thingsV'J For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow; For rose-moles a l l in stipple upon trout that swim; Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches wings; Landscapes plotted and pieced . . . (XXXVII, 2-5). \"All things counter, original, spare, strange\" (XXXVII, 9) have this peculiar attraction for Hopkins. The attraction lies in the contrast of the \"fickle\" with the \"freckled,\" the \"sweet\" with the \"sour\" and \"adazzle\" with \"dim.\" \"Pied Beauty,\" a study of individuality in nature, expresses Hopkins' delight in contrasts. Pied things express variety; by their very contrast with God's ,= 52 -simplicity \"they t e l l of God by their inability to be simple like God.\"? The appeal which nature had for Hopkins stems from his theory that a l l things are unique and individual. Each thing appears to him as beautiful in its own inscape, and he loves each one for its own individual \"self.'? Yet Hopkins is not a pantheist. His theory is that nature is not to be wor-shipped as beauty absolute, but is to be referred to the glory of its Creator. In \"Pied Beauty,\" the words \"Praise Him\" tie together Hopkins' two levels of thought so that the reader sees the beauty of nature and simultaneously refers i t back to the Creator of a l l nature.^ Hopkins' use of nature to express the grandeur of God and man's consequent duty of praising Him is only one aspect of his theory that nature is an expression of God. Since Hopkins' concept of God rests on a sound theological basis, he considers God, not only as a Creator, but also as a Redeemer and a Sanctifier. Consequently, he feels that nature should be an expression of other attributes of God as well as of His creative powers. In the \"terrible sonnets\" Hopkins uses nature to express God's justice and mercy. The gap between the poetry of praise and the \"terrible sonnets\" is bridged by a small but important group of 'Daniel\"Sargent, Four Independents (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1935), 147. . . . . SSee Pick, pp. 53-54. - 53 -transition poems in which Hopkins combines both praise and reverence to God as Creator with expressions of awe at the thought of God's justice, of confidence in His mercy, and of submission to His most \"just decrees.\" II \"The Wreck of the Deutschland\" is a transition poem in several ways. It was the first of Hopkins' mature poems after his seven years of silence, and i t inaugurated the new rhythms which had been \"haunting\" his ear.9 As a nature poem, \"The Wreck of the Deutschland\" stands half way between the poetry of praise and the poetry which expresses submission to God. \"Its first lines burst into a magnificent apostrophe to the Creatorship, Providence, and mastery of God.\"^ The themes of the poem are two: \" i t expresses awe and respect toward the grandeur of God, and wonder that God's ways should include the sacrifice of the innocent nuns who have already been persecuted for the love of God.\"*^ The fir s t half of the poem is a discussion of God's Providence and of His ways with man; the second half is an example of God's ways 9The Correspondence of Gerard Manley Hopkins and Richard Watson Dixon. Edited with notes and introduction by Claude Colleer Abott. second revised impression (London: Oxford University Press, 1955), 14\u00E2\u0080\u0094hereafter cited as Correspondence with Dixon. IQGerald F. Lahey, Gerard Manley Hopkins, (London: Oxford Univer-sity Press, 1 9 3 0 ) , 1 1 0 . -^Donald W. Heiney, Essentials of Contemporary Literature (Barron's Educational Series: Great Neck, New York,) 1 9 5 4 , 4 2 0 . - 54 -'of mastering man. In the fi r s t part, the poet recalls a profound religious experience of which this shipwreck reminds him. He had been kneeling before an altar, nearly overcome by the terror of God's overwhelming masterhood, but had saved himself by turning to Christ in the Eucharist. He delights in God whenever he meets Him in nature; but here he experiences a special stress which comes not so much from God in heaven as from God in time. The human heart is penetrated with this sense of-God's pressure through Christ, and this brings him to surrender at last to Christ, the Hero of Calvary. He then begs God to dominate and master man so that man is brought to accept God's will and to adore Him.* In the second part, to illustrate this mastery of God over man, Hopkins uses the description of the shipwreck. Throughout the whole poem, nature is used as a background. Sometimes nature forms an analogy with the supernatural, while at other times i t is contrasted with the supernatural. The poem impresses one with the idea that the poet has consistently marshalled his sensuous love of nature to uphold and strengthen his deeper love of God. In the fi r s t stanza, the praise of God's grandeur is made greater by comparing i t with man's pettiness. God, \"the Lord of 12 the living and dead,\" masters man as He masters a l l else; and See Heuser, p.43 f f man is in his rightful place when he can say \"Over again I feel thy finger and find Thee.\" Then the stress of the natural storm, with its lightning and horror and strain, is introduced to describe this greater storm of the poet's heart, until he \"whirled out wings that spell/ And fled, with a fling of the heart to the heart of the Host.\"(20-21). The two figures of sand in an hourglass and water running into a well are expressions of the steady stress of God bearing uninterruptedly and relent-lessly down upon his life. 1 - * Yet even the stress of suffering does not destroy Hopkins' love for nature. \"The stars, lovely asunder,\" to which he kisses his hand, \"the starlight wafting him out of i t , \" the \"glow\" and \"the glory of thunder,\" \"the dapple-with-damson west\" provide a l i s t of natural loves equally impressive as Rupert Brooke's in \"The Great Lover.\" Like Rupert Brooke, Hopkins feels that \"All these have been my loves,\" but, for him, they are not passing things but expressions of God's grandeur since \"He is under the world's splendor and wonder.\" For him, a l l things are both an utterance and a proof of the timeless grandeur of God. Through faith, nature reveals to Hopkins the God of the Incarnation, and his faith in the God of the Incarnation reaches fulfilment when he comes to \"Hero of l^For a f u l l explanation of these two figures, see Elizabeth Schneider, \"Two Metaphysical Images in Hopkins' 'The Wreck'of the\"Deutschland,' \"Modern Language Motes. LXV (May 1950) 306-311. - 5 6 -Calvary, Christ's f e e t . \" \"The lush-kept plush-capped sloe\" i s an apt i l l u s t r a t i o n of the place of suffering i n t h i s t r a n s i t i o n ^ If the sloe i s r i p e , we are suffused with sweetness; i f i t i s hot r i p e , we are puckered up with sourness. If we inscape our suffering with Christ, Our Suffering Lord and Redeemer, i t f i l l s us with sweetness, the sweetness of a s a c r i f i c e made f o r one we love; i f we do not inscape i t , i t puckers us to the roots of our souls with i t s bitterness.14 For Hopkins, Christ i s \"lightning and love . . . a winter and xirarm.\" Hopkins' choice of these four words to describe Christ may have come from \"an underthought\" of the T r i n i t y i t s e l f ; the enlightenment and love of the Holy Ghost being suggestive of \" l i g h t n i n g and love,\" the remote, austere glory of the Father by \"the winter,\" and the warm compassion of the God-man by \"warm.\" Again, the ways of God, dark and d i f f i c u l t as they are to under-stand, bring a \"winter\" to the soul. Hopkins uses nature to express his b e l i e f that blessings may be derived from su f f e r i n g . It i s f i t t i n g that t h i s f i r s t part of the poem\u00E2\u0080\u0094which i s r e a l l y the whole poem i n miniature\u00E2\u0080\u0094should end with a prayer f o r God's mercy and an acknowledgment of His kingship: \"Make mercy i n a l l of us, out of a l l Mastery, but be adored, but be adored King.\" Throughout the second part of the poem, the storm at sea p a r a l l e l s the t r i a l of the nuns and also, i n d i r e c t l y , the t r i a l 1A-M.B. McNamee, \"Mastery and Mercy i n 'The Wreck of the Deutschland',\" College English JCXIII. No. 4 (January 1962),275. - 57 -o f H o p k i n s h i m s e l f . T h r o u g h h i s u s e o f t h e s t o r m , H o p k i n s i s a b l e t o b r i n g t h e s e s p i r i t u a l s t r u g g l e s i n t o f u l l r e l i e f . T h e s o u l , b r a v e l y j o u r n e y i n g t h r o u g h l i f e a n d m e e t i n g t h e u n f o r e s e e n a n d i n e v i t a b l e s t r u g g l e s , i s t y p i f i e d b y t h e d i s a s t e r o f t h e D e u t s c h l a n d . T h e m a j e s t i c s h i p s e t s o u t o n i t s j o u r n e y a n d m o v e s t h r o u g h t h e s t o r m y s e a t o w a r d s i t s t r i a l . N o t o n l y t h i s ; t h e t r i a l c o m e s f r o m a n u n s u s p e c t e d a n d e v e n t r i v i a l c a u s e , f o r i t i s n o t o n a r e e f o r a r o c k i n t h e o p e n s e a t h a t t h e s h i p f l o u n d e r s , b u t on t h e \" c o m b e s o f a s m o t h e r o f s a n d \" i n t h e T h a m e s . T h e h e r o i c s t r u g g l e o f t h e s o u l i s d i s c e r n i b l e i n t h e d e s c r i p t i o n o f t h e l o n g h o u r s o f d e s p e r a t e w a i t i n g u n t i l \" h o p e w a s t w e l v e h o u r s g o n e \" a n d \" f r i g h t f u l a n i g h t f a l l f o l d e d r u e f u l a d a y , \" a n d a l s o i n t h e p i t i f u l e f f o r t s o f t h e h e r o i c s a i l o r who m a t c h e s h i s s t r e n g t h a g a i n s t t h e s t o r m o n l y t o b e \" d a n d l e d t h e t o a n d f r o / Through t h e c o b b l e d f o a m - f l e e c e . \" When t h e s t r o n g n u n r i s e s t o c a l l o n G o d , we h a v e a c o n t r a s t o f t h e p h y s i c a l a n d t h e s p i r i t u a l s t r u g g l e . The n u n c a l m l y r i s e s a b o v e t h e e a r t h l y s t r u g g l e . She may b e b l i n d e d b y \" t h e r a s h s m a r t s l o g g e r i n g b r i n e \" ; s h e may b e o u t c a s t f r o m G e r m a n y a n d s h i p w r e c k e d n e a r E n g l a n d , b u t s h e k e e p s h e r g a z e f i x e d o n t h e \" O r i o n o f l i g h t \" a b o v e , who c o n t r o l s t h e s e a a n d t h e s t o r m s , a n d s h e m a k e s o f h e r d e a t h a v i c t o r y * I n t h i s p o e m H o p k i n s a l s o u s e s n a t u r e t o b r i n g o u t t h e c o n -t r a s t b e t w e e n h i s own r e s t a n d s e c u r i t y \" i n l o v a b l e W a l e s \" w i t h t h e p l i g h t o f t h e s h i p w r e c k e d n u n . B o t h t h e t r i u m p h o f t h e nun - 53 -and Hopkins' own peace after submission to God are symbolized by the li f t i n g of the fog. Then night settles over the land, the darkening sky enriched by the \"moth soft milky way.\" Complete submission brings peace both to the nun and to Hopkins. The poet also makes the storm a mark of God's providence, for the nun's voice, like a sheep bell calling the sheep home, directs a l l on board to call upon Christ, their true home. Through the symbolic use of nature, \"The Wreck of the Deutschland\" reaches out in different directions: God is to be adored; His. mercy outrides a l l , and Christ is the Christ of a compassionate Father. For his part, man must, even through a struggle similar to that pictured in the storm, bring his heart to God, for He is his \"Pride, rose, prince, and hero.\" Man owes to Him both praise for His greatness, and submission to His will. In \"The Windhover\" Hopkins uses nature to show both the magnificence and the love of Christ. As has been noted (pp.40-43), interpretations of this poem vary greatly. Some critics consider i t as a simple nature poem, others as a nature poem with a religious analogue, and s t i l l others as a highly symbolic religious poem. Little difficulty is experienced in inter-preting the octave. But the sestet, which contains \"the under-thought,\" is difficult. Much of the difficulty comes from the various meanings given to the terms \"buckle,\" \"break,\" - 59 -\"Chevalier\"; to the meaning of \"Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, a i r , pride, plume, here/Buckle\"; to the i d e n t i f i c a t i o n of the one the poet addresses as \"thee\"; and to the interpretation of the two.comparisons at the end of the poem. That Hopkins meant to use the k e s t r e l as a symbol of Christ i s by no means ce r t a i n . He did dedicate i t , as \"the best thing I ever wrote,\"15 \"To Christ Our Lord.\" But t h i s dedication i s inconclusive, since i t was added a f t e r the poem was composed. Whatever Hopkins' intentions, i t seems obvious that he wished to bring men into closer contact with the divine, at lea s t through the natural \"utterance\" of the k e s t r e l . Following h i s usual procedure, Hopkins uses the octave of the poem to describe the k e s t r e l as an object of nature, and the sestet to develop \"the underthought.\" It i s \"the underthought\" which allows \"The Windhover\" to be considered as a poem of praise. The octave of the poem describes the beauty and strength of the k e s t r e l i n f l i g h t . The sestet, i n which Hopkins uses the bi r d to bring before men his idea of Christ, presents the poet's reaction to the experience of seeing the b i r d . The sight of the bird s t i r s h i s heart to ad-miration f o r i t s achievement and i t s mastery. I t s undisciplined beauty causes him to r e f l e c t on the greater achievement which, by d i s c i p l i n e d strength, he has given to Christ, his Leader. He explains t h i s greater strength by the comparison of the shining 15 Letters to Robert Bridges, p.85. ~ 60 -furrows and of the \"blue-bleak embers.\" In t h i s explication, the l a s t l i n e of the poem \" F a l l , g a l l themselves, and gash Gold-vermilion\" i s a key l i n e . This l i n e i s pregnant with pos-s i b i l i t i e s . I f Hopkins considered Christ as h i s \"chevalier,\" then he considered himself as a follower of that C h e v a l i e r \u00E2\u0080\u0094 the Cru c i f i e d King. Many c r i t i c s connect the Windhover with the Passion. But they stop short of the r e a l significance of the comparison. The three words \" f a l l \" , \" g a l l \" and \"gash\" can be considered to have d e f i n i t e reference to the Passion i n which \" f a l l \" symbolizes Christ as having lowered Himself to the p o s i t i o n of a sinner; \" g a l l \" represents the humiliations of the Passion; and \"gash\" conveys the physical sufferings of the Passion. These ideas are climaxed by \"gold-vermilion.\" The b r i l l i a n t red-vermilion of Christ's Blood on Calvary i s juxtaposed with the symbolic gold of the kingship Christ achieved through the Passion. This int e r p r e t a t i o n i s consistent with the ideas expressed by Hopkins i n two of hi s most important sermons, that of Christ as a Hero, and that on the Kingship of C h r i s t . At the same time, i t makes use of natural pheno-mena to i l l u s t r a t e both Christ's grandeur and h i s love f o r men. \"Spelt from Sibyl's Leaves\" portrays both the immensity of God and the submission which man owes Him i n a l l events of l i f e . In restrained and subdued tones t h i s poem describes the twilight zone of day as i t strains to become night. The poem is unique in two ways. First, i t is actually an Ignatian meditation comprising the three principal points: composition of place, application, and resolution. The octave, which forms the composition of place, is the image of evening's transition into night; while the sestet,; forming the application and resolution, introduces the religious themes of the poem.l\u00C2\u00A3 Secondly, the poem uses the Sibyl theme which, at fi r s t , appears to be drawn from paganism. Alan Heuser, however, offers an explanation which makes Hopkins' use of the Sibyl theme consistent with his purpose\u00E2\u0080\u009E Among the Jesuit rules for professors of rhetoric, the subject of the Sibyls is\"considered an acceptable topic for prelections . . . . The Sibyl (from Aeneid VI) is the will of God, an oracle speaking through.the heart . . \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 17 Two interpretations of the poem have been advanced by critics. Wight may conceivably symbolize either the coming of death or the spiritual experience known as the \"night of the soul.\" Of these two interpretations, that of death is the most common as well as the easiest, for night is a century-old symbol of death. It is the mutability theme in its most l^For a discussion of this pOem as an Ignatian meditation see Sister Mary Teresa, S.N.D., \"Spelt from Sibyls Leaves,\" Explicator, XLV (April 1959), No. 45. -^Heuser, P\u00C2\u00ABll\u00C2\u00A3\u00C2\u00AB \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 62 -solemn and d i g n i f i e d form. Every d e t a i l of the coming of night by which a l l things are made \"earnest, earthless, equal, attuneable,\" has been used to develop t h i s \"underthought.\" As evening descends, sublimating a l l things and reducing them to a common n e u t r a l i t y , so death brings a l l to the equality and ne u t r a l i t y of the grave. Although the symbolic association of night with death i s commonplace, Hopkins' fresh approach to the subject gives the reader the impression of seeing old t e r r i t o r y from an e n t i r e l y new vantage point. Here was an inversion of the Christian story of woman\"and dragon, f o r \"boughs dragonish\" were i n the grotto of the heart, while i n the sky was a mock image of the Vi r g i n , evening, s t r a i n i n g to become the mother of a l l being. Evening was but a part\" of the v i s i o n of good and e v i l which was interpreted or 'spelt' a l l e g o r i c a l l y as a warning of death and judgment upon the soul.18 \" \"Paraphrasing the sestet, which i s the s p i r i t u a l ap-p l i c a t i o n of the subject, the evening of l i f e i s over. Let l i f e , dwindling and r e t i r i n g , draw to i t s end; l e t her now unwind her \"once-skeined\" var i e t y onto two spools, \"black, white; / r i g h t , wrong.\" (LXII, 11-12). The warning comes: \"My heart rounds me that each man, at some moment of hi s l i f e , must s a c r i f i c e the dapple of existence f o r the stark dichotomy Heuser, p .7 7 - 6 3 . -of r i g h t and wrong.\"19 As the gradations of daylight die away, making the once-beautiful trees strange, hard, cru e l , \"beak-leaved,\" man i s l e f t tortured by his \"selfwrung self-,-strung, sheathe-and s h e l t e r l e s s , \" thoughts. He must now t r y to simplify l i f e ' s v ariety and to turn h i s attention to those things which r e a l l y matter. This decision w i l l bring the \"rock,\" suffering, with i t ; but i t s coming means that he i s preparing for death. In t h i s d i d a c t i c theme of the poem, Hopkins presents the world as a l i s t i n g ground, a place of t r i a l , and urges man to make use of \"evening\" as a preparation for death. Heuser c a r r i e s the interpretation of the poem s t i l l f arther, finding i t to be symbolic of the end of the world. In t h i s e xplication evening becomes a \"cosmological v i s i o n of heaven and earth\" which i s represented as \"a sign of the l a s t things.\"20 However, since the strength of t h i s interpreta-t i o n rests upon the general association of the idea of death and the idea of the end of the world, Heuser may be reading into the poem more than Hopkins intended. Other writers see evening as symbolic of the dark night of the soulc,,. Since t h i s 19Leavis, F. R., \"Gerard Manley Hopkins,\" New Bearings, New edition, (London: Chatto and Wlndus, 1950), 184. 2 0Heuser, p.77. - 6h -reading places the theme of \"Spelt from Sibyl's Leaves\" very close to that of \"the terrible sonnets,\" this poem may be more properly treated with the \"terrible sonnets,\" in Chapter IV. - 65 -CHAPTER IV THE. TERRIBLE SONNETS: \"GOD'S MOST JUST DECREE\" Many c r i t i c s are of the opinion that at the time he wrote the \"terrible sonnets\" 1 Gerard Manley Hopkins was ex-periencing either the \"night of the senses\" or \"the dark night of the soul.\" Because these two terms convey, even to the well-informed reader, only a very vague concept, and because an understanding of these terms is central to any discussion of Hopkins' \"terrible sonnets,\" i t seems profitable to start this chapter by defining these terms, and by stating the extent to which Hopkins, in his later years, may be said to have experienced these religious phenomena* The \"night of the senses\" and the \"dark night of the soul\" ^The \" t e r r i b l e sonnets\" are seven i n number: \"To seem the stranger l i e s my l o t , my l i f e , \" \"I wake and f e e l the f e l l of dark, hot day,\" \"No worst, there i s none,\" \"Carrion Comfort,\" \"Thou art indeed just, Lord, i f I contend,\" \"Patience hard thingJ the hard thing but to pray,\" arid \"My own heart l e t me have more p i t y on.\" Dixon uses the terms \" t e r r i b l e pathos\" and \" t e r r i b l e c r y s t a l \" i n his l e t t e r to Hopkins. Concerning Hopkins' poetry he writes: \"charm . \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 \u00C2\u00AB something I cannot describe, but know myself by the inadequate word ' t e r r i b l e pathos' . t h e t e r r i b l e c r y s t a l . \" The term, \" t e r r i b l e sonnets\" was f i r s t applied to the seven sonnets by Robert Bridges i n h i s introduction to Hopkins' poems, (1918 e d i t i o n ) , i n which he speaks of them as the \" t e r r i b l e posthumous poems.\" - 66 -are properly subjects of theological study,2 The two terras apply to the two major purgations experienced by the soul in search of God, The whole principle underlying the experience is based on the recognised fact that persons who determine to follow God closely, frequently, after an i n i t i a l period of enthusiasm and spiritual \"sweetness,\" experience long periods of t r i a l and desolation which bring intense suffering. These periods of t r i a l often increase both in duration and intens-ity as the soul continues its search for God, The Christian concept of the value of suffering and t r i a l is based on Plato's theory that the idea is the essence and the perfection of the object and that the natural object participates in this essence after the manner of a reflection. Since a l l objects participate in the essence, they also participate in the Absolute Good which transcends the world and is distinct from i t , Man shares in this participation in Absolute Good,, The soul tends to reach the Absolute Good, and, in its turn, the Absolute Good illumines the soul. This relationship between the soul and the Absolute Good constitutes the upward striving of the soul. Tension i s set up in the soul because, while the 2 For explanation, see Sister Mary St. Rose, S .N.D. , \"St . John of the Cross, Doctor of Divine Love,\" Review for Religious. XVI (January-December 1957), 193-210. St, John of the Cross i s considered the authority on t h i s s u b j e c t . See his Ascent of Mount Camel. Third revised edition, translated, and edited by E. Al l i son Peers from the c r i t i c a l edition of P. Silverio de Santa Teresa, C D . (New York: Doubleday and Co. , 1958), - 67 -soul aspires to the Absolute Good, i t is also pulled earthward by the senses. Thus the soul is held a prisoner by the body. In his philosophy, Duns Scotus accepted the platonic belief that the idea is the essence, seeing God as both imminent in creation and transcendent above i t . In Duns Scotus there is also a two-way communication between God and man: man seeks to aspire to God; God, in his turn illuminates man. Duns Scotus' teachings were an inspiration to Hopkins who saw each in-dividual essence as an object of God's special love. Moreover, Duns Scotus looked upon the Incarnation-Redemption theme as one unit which is the culmination of God's love for man. When St. John of the Cross wrote his- account of the mystical l i f e of the soul, he made use ,of Duns Scotus' philosophy. His treatises describe the struggles of the soul to reach God. In the conflict of the soul with the senses every hindrance to the soul in its search for the Infinite must be ruthlessly overcome. All sin must be rejected; for sin, being the negation of good, is the one real evil. Even those objects, which are good in them-selves, are to be used only in so far as they further the soul's ascent to God. Little by l i t t l e , the soul searching for God disentangles itself, first from sin, then from imperfections, and finally even from attachment to a l l things of this earth, even the most holy. According to the plan which St. John of the Cross drew up and called \"The Mount of Perfection,\" Christian mysticism considers that the soul's progress toward the - 68 -possession of God implies a scale of perfection comprised of three stages: the Purgative Life, in which sin is atoned for, the Illuminative Life in which the soul, illuminated by God's grace seeks Him with both will and intellect; and the Unitive Life, or l i f e of complete absorption in God. In order to grasp this idea of the soul's ascent, suffering must be thought of as existing simultaneously on two levels. On the natural level, suffering and trials take a variety of forms such as illness, lack of success, misunderstanding, and even calumny. Frequently, an added source of suffering lies in the fact that the sufferer, being totally unaware of. the real purpose of his sufferings, considers himself responsible for the condition in which he finds himself; he may even believe himself to be outside the pale of God's friendship. On a super-natural level, suffering i s one of God's means of bring a soul to Him. Why God exacts suffering from man, especially from the just man, is a difficult problem. According to Roman Catholic doctrine suffering is not an evil; i t may even be a very great blessing i f i t furthers the eternal salvation of the one who suffers. Moreover, the doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ makes Christ the example of vicarious suffering. Linking together the doctrines of the Incarnation and of the Redemption brings suffering into its true focus. It emphasizes the privilege of the sufferer who takes his place, not under the feet of a tyrannical outraged Deity, but at the side of a God of Infinite love who has redeemed a l l men through suffering. - 69 -The soul, suffering the \"night of the senses\" or the \"dark night of the soul\" reflects the sufferings experienced by-Christ in \"the dark night\" of Gethsemane. Several important facts should be noted by the reader. First, since faith is not a question of feeling, these trials are not sinful. Secondly, a very sensitive person would be more apt to suffer, and would suffer more intensely, than would other persons. Moreover, such trials are not necessarily limited to persons in religious l i f e ; but the religious, by the very nature of their lives, are more susceptible to these trials than are others who may more readily distract their attention from these trials by other occupations. Finally, the trials may be intermittent. Desolation and anguish may be inter-spersed with times of peace and contentment, so that the whole ascent of the soul to God may be said to resemble a journey of many days and nights, or a journey of one long night frequently illuminated by light from heaven. Of these periods of t r i a l , the \"night of the senses\" and the \"dark night of the soul\" are the most prolonged and the most severe. \"The night of the senses\" pertains to beginners and is relatively common. It occurs when God begins to bring the soul to realize his presence and to accept its dependence upon Him. This purgation strips the soul of desires--first sinful ones, then involuntary ones. This night is an active state because the soul is able to better its condition and to alleviate its suffering through active efforts and through s a c r i f i c e s ; but i t no longer finds delight i n b e a u t i f u l things; what was formerly enjoyable i s now dry, i r r i t a t i n g , and un-consoling, and a l l experiences of the senses have bee-Q.me meaningless. In t h i s state, the soul w i l l avoid f a i l u r e by i t s active cooperation with God's grace. The \"dark night of the s o u l , \" by f a r the most severe of these t r i a l s , i s sent by God only to those great souls, such as St. John of the Cross, who can bear i t without despairing. I t occurs at the beginning of the Unitive L i f e , when God seeks to bring the soul into complete union with Him. The soul f e e l s that eyen God has abandoned i t . There i s no con-s o l a t i o n . There may even be the temptation, against both f a i t h and reason, to f e e l that God does not e x i s t . This i s a passive state, f o r the soul i s only capable of resigning i t s e l f to God's w i l l . This passive resignation of the soul saves i t from despair. To what extent, i f any, these two major purgations of the soul entered the l i f e of Father Gerard Hopkins w i l l probably never be completely known. However, t h i s lack of information i s not of very great importance f o r an adequate discussion of nature i n \"the t e r r i b l e sonnets,.\" What i s e s s e n t i a l to understand i s that the road on which a soul may pass i n i t s search f o r God may be one of suf f e r i n g , and that the continual recurrence of these sufferings i s a means both of divesting the soul of i t s desire f o r earthly happiness and of turning i t to God. \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 - 71 -During h i s l i f e , Hopkins was most c e r t a i n l y subjected to many severe t r i a l s which had the c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of \"the night of the senses\" and \"the dark night of the soul.\" His sufferings were more intense during the l a s t years of his l i f e , but they did not begin then. He had known s u f f e r i n g even when he found l i f e so congenial i n thehhappy days of his scholasticate at St. Beuno's.> Here, before h i s ordination to the priesthood, he had written h i s autobiographical poem, \"The Wreck of the Deutschland.\" He himself assured Bridges: \"what refers to me i n the poem i s a l l s t r i c t l y and l i t e r a l l y \u00E2\u0080\u00A2a true and did occur; nothing i s added f o r poetic padding.\"^ During the l a s t years of h i s l i f e , Hopkins' periods of su f f e r i n g became increasingly more frequent and more intense, and they came from a number of d i f f e r e n t causes. He was plagued by i l l - h e a l t h and general physical fatigue. In spite of an apparent good humour, he had a natural tendency to con-sider his undertakings unsatisfactory. This tendency, together with the monotonous labour of correcting examinations, made his tasks uncongenial, and increased the tension of his l i f e . L i v i n g i n Ireland was a further source of suffering; f o r , while Hopkins seems to have loved the I r i s h people, his English patriotism could not approve the current p o l i t i c a l attitudes and a c t i v i t i e s of the country. Above a l l , there was the ang-^Letters to Bridges, p.47. - 72 -uish of not being able to use his f i n e mind f o r w r i t i n g . He wished to write, he had. the necessary authorization from his superiors to write, but he could not succeed eith e r with poetry or with prose. A l l these sufferings weighed heavily on the gentle, kindly soul of the l i t t l e p r i e s t and made h i s l i f e , at times, almost unbearable. But h i s years were not completely dark. There were periods when the tension and s t r a i n l i f t e d , and when he enjoyed both consolation from God and companionship with his fellow men. L i f e became f o r him a series of cris e s of varying i n t e n s i t y . Hopkins' writings make i t evident that his sufferings brought him closer to God. Yet no one can say with ce r t a i n t y how f a r these sufferings brought him up the \"Ascent\" towards God. Circumstances seem .to j u s t i f y the conclusion that he was passing through the night of the senses. He was s t i l l acutely aware of the nature of h i s sufferings, and of t h e i r causes; he even sought professional advice from Bridges concerning his health, and from experience he knew that change did help to l i f t h is depression. At times, he was s t i l l able to f i n d com-f o r t i n his fr i e n d s . Occasionally, too, nature s t i l l had power to overwhelm him by i t s beauty. Even the outpourings of his heart i n the \" t e r r i b l e sonnets\" provided him with a measure of r e l i e f . At other times su f f e r i n g increased u n t i l he became incapable of helping himself. Since the night of the senses and the dark night of the soul may overlap, i t i s d i f f i c u l t to pinpoint Hopkins' condition. At times Hopkins' state did seem to reflect that of Christ in Gethsemane. In \"The Wreck of the Deutschland,\" \"the lightning and lashed rod\" of the storm drove him to Christ. He \"whirled out wings that spell / And fled with a fling of the heart to the heart of the Host.\" (XXVIII, 2 0 - 2 1 ) . Here only, when he had sought refuge in his God and had accepted the mastery of his King, did he obtain peace. The \"terrible sonnets,\" written during the last years of Hopkins' l i f e , are accepted as being autobiographical in char-acter. They are some of Hopkins' finest poems, and they will repay more study than has yet been made of them. Some critical work has been done on one or more of these sonnets as individual poems. But what no critic has so far shown i s the manner in which Hopkins by the \"terrible sonnets\" gives a unified expression to his account of his relationship with God. Yet these sonnets may be considered as different phases of the same struggle, and when so considered they are the expression of Hopkins' inscape of suffering. By inscaping this spiritual experience, Hopkins brings the reader face to face with the problem of suffering. Since suffering is a vague, internal experience, its inscape is more difficult to catch than is the inscape of concrete objects. Consequently the \"terrible sonnets\" represent Hopkins' most difficult accomplishment in writing poetry. In a unified treat-ment of the \"terrible sonnets,\" each individual sonnet expresses - 74 -one phase of the t o t a l problem of su f f e r i n g . The order of treatment of the sonnets has more sign i f i c a n c e when t h e i r theme i s considered as a part of the great mystical experience of s u f f e r i n g , f o r i n the t o t a l context they are more f o r c e f u l and more b e a u t i f u l . Even the night images i n \"Spelt from Sibyl's Leaves\" have t h i s added i n t e n s i t y when the poem i s interpreted as symbolic of \"the nights\" of the soul. Most c r i t i c s consider t h i s poem as symbolic of either death or \"the nights\" of the soul. The symbolism of \"the nights\" of the soul i s supported by the imagery contained i n the l a s t l i n e s . . \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 reckon but, reck but, mind But these two; ware of a world where but these two t e l l , each o f f the other; of a rack Where, selfwrung, selfstrung, sheath-and s h e l t e r l e s s , thoughts against thoughts i n groans grind. In physical death, thoughts are at res t , but i n \"the nights\" of the soul there can be no r e s t . On the other hand, death seems a more l o g i c a l explanation. The soft beauty of the coming evening, the i n e v i t a b i l i t y of i t s coming, and the reckoning to which i t leads a l l harmonize with thoughts of death. As a symbol of death the poem also has a more universal appeal. Conceivably, Hopkins may have meant eithe r i n t e r p r e t a t i o n . But i t i s more probable that he wished to fuse the two symbolic meanings, that, by drawing a p a r a l l e l between death and \"the nights\" of the soul, he might show that the s p i r i t u a l \"night\" i s the more t e r r i b l e of the two experiences, and that the accumulated sufferings of l i f e w i l l end with death. - 75 -Taken as a whole, the \" t e r r i b l e sonnets\" give an almost u n i f i e d expression of the pattern followed by each of these periods of t r i a l . Nature imagery plays an important part i n these sonnets. Hopkins l i v e d i n such close association with nature that, even i n these years of b i t t e r struggle, he turned to nature f o r the adequate expression of h i s thoughts. At t h i s time, he uses nature imagery to r e f l e c t the ominous, destructive elements of nature rather than the consoling ones. In keeping with his own f e e l i n g s , nature appears as most f o r -bidding and most t e r r i f y i n g . This representation of nature d i f f e r s from that used i n Hopkins' other poems. While less emphasized, nature imagery i s i n t e n s i f i e d by r e p e t i t i o n , and i t i s more t r u l y representative of the t o t a l inscape of su f f e r i n g which Hopkins i s presenting. Imagery containing c l i f f s , storms, darkness and struggle predominate and form an \"underthought\" f o r the whole series of sonnets. Like the sonnets themselves t h i s nature imagery must have r i s e n \"un-bidden\" i n Hopkins 1 mind as a spontaneous r e f l e c t i o n of; his own mental states. Subconsciously equating h i s own s p i r i t u a l d i f f i c u l t i e s with physical storms and dangers, Hopkins l i n k s the whole series of sonnets together by means of nature imagery which, therefore, forms an i n t e g r a l part of the poems. The sonnets are a \"magnificent expression of h i s s p i r i t u a l desolation\"^ i n which love predominates over fear and suffering. ^Pick, P r i e s t and Poet, p.132. - 76 -As such, they have a universal appeal. Even from this dark region,they \"echo words in which each man finds his own troubles reflected,,They are the cry of the just man who feels himself abandoned by God but whose definite faith gives him the power of recovery.^ When the \"terrible sonnets\" are considered as essential parts of one whole experience, Sonnet 6 8 , \"To seem the stranger. should be placed f i r s t , for i t is a statement of the causes of Hopkins1 suffering and desolation. Many and varied as these causes are, their total effect on Hopkins is the feeling of loneliness which he voices in this sonnet: To seem the stranger lies my lot, my l i f e Among strangers. Father and mother dear, Brothers and sisters are in Christ not near And he my peace my parting, sword and strife. England, whose honour 0 a l l my heart woos, wife To my creating thought, would neither hear Me, were I pleading, plead nor do I : I wear-y of idle a being but by where wars are rife. I am in Ireland now: now I am at a third Remove. Not but in a l l removes I can Kind love both give and get. Only what word Wisest my heart breeds dark heaven's baffling ban Bars or hell's spell thwarts. This to hoard unheard, Heard unheeded, leaves me a lonely began. Hopkins' inevitable estrangement from his family and his %ranz., Gerard Manley HopkinsT p.125. 6See Gardner, I I , p.330. - 77 -friends was not caused by lack of sympathy on the part of either Hopkins or his family. His suffering was the more poignant suffering arising from the knowledge of his in-ability to pass on to those he loved the faith which meant so much to him. As an Englishman in an Ireland devoted to the cause of Home Rule, he could not but suffer. By far the greatest source of suffering was his lack of inspiration to write. For Hopkins, there was no royal road to poetry.7 He had to feel his way to i t . This difficulty which he ex-perienced in writing was one of the tensions which he felt and which involved him in a suffering similar to that experienced in the \"nights\" of the soul. Hopkins' theory of poetry** is that real poetic language must be \"current language heightened, \" when \"heightened\" is used in the sense of language which is a l i t t l e more carefully put together than ordinary speech. It is current language, but such as people use when speaking care-fully. When the poet uses words and thoughts to form a pattern specifically for beauty, he is.writing poetry. As had other poets before him, Hopkins recognized a distinction between poetry and mere verse. Verse lacking distinctiveness, in-dividuality, inspiration, he called \"Delphic verse,\" or verse of the sacred Plain. \"Parnassian\" is verse written in the 7Journals, p.23. ^For Hopkins' explanation of the types of poetry, see Journals, p.38. - 7 8 -language of poetry, but lacking the inspiration of really great poetry. Parnassian poetry is that poetry ordinarily written even by great poets whenu they are not inspired. The highest type of poetry Hopkins designates as \"poetry of in-spiration.\" Such poetry is generated during a mood of mental acuteness, which may be active\u00E2\u0080\u0094when thoughts which arise in this mood strike into i t unasked. To write poetry of inspir-ation requires both the moment of inspiration and the poetic ability to write the experience. Without inspiration, true poetry cannot be produced. Hopkins expresses this theory of inspiration in the poem, \"To R. B.\" Inspiration, \"the fine delight which fathers thought\" must be present; otherwise i t will miss \"the r o l l , the rise, the carol, the creation\" of true poetry.(LXXV, 12). It is the lack of this true inspiration which makes of Hopkins' last years a \"winter world.\" In \"To seem the stranger,\" Hopkins uses very l i t t l e nature imagery to express his spiritual state, yet because he is able to put so much into a few words the whole world of nature is suggested in the overtones and nuances of the poem. The poem does point inevitably to an analogy with nature, for the dominating theme of loneliness and desolation is conveyed to the reader by the idea of the vast distance which his separation implies. In the last tercet Hopkins ex-presses his inability to write by calling himself \"a lonely began.\" \"Began\" is similar in formation to \"also-ran.\"* \"Also-7 9 -ran,\" a term used at first in horse-racing, is now used to refer to any person who fails to win distinction. Used,as a noun, \"began\" means one who fails in the beginning, but from \"also-ran\" i t has an added overtone of the defeat of frus-tration experienced by one who loses at the very beginning of a race. To Hopkins, l i f e seems an unsuccessful race but he does not give up. As the race continues, there is no despair only the continual beginning again which accompanies such hours of t r i a l , and makes of him a lonely \"began.\" \"To seem the ^ stranger\" lists the causes of the approaching struggle. With Sonnet 6 9 , \"I wake and feel the f e l l of dark, not day,\" Hopkins enters into the i n i t i a l stages of the conflict. As a person may sometimes awaken in the night to find himself dangerously i l l , so Hopkins on this spiritual \"night\" has awakened to intense spiritual suffering which he here describes: I wake and feel the f e l l of dark, not day. What hours, 0 what black hours we have spent This night! what sights you, heart, saw; ways you went! And more must, in yet longer light's delay. With witness I speak this. But where I say Hours I mean years, mean l i f e . And my lament Is cries countless, cries like dead letters sent To dearest him that lives alas! away. I am gall, I am heartburn. God's most deep decree Bitter would have me taste; my taste was me; Bones built in me, flesh f i l l e d , blood brimmed the curse. Selfyeast of spirit a dull dough sours. I see The lost are like this, and their scourge to be As I am mine, their sweating selves; but worse. The idea of the intensity of Hopkins' sufferings is conveyed by the poet's use of nature imagery. The night, far from - 80 -being the starlight night of other times, is a night of utter darkness and unknown terror. This overwhelming character of the night is further emphasized by the multiple meanings of the word \" f e l l . \" 9 The night is \" f e l l \" \u00E2\u0080\u0094 c r u e l , inhuman and painful; as a noun, \" f e l l \" denotes a wasteland of vast, desolate, and empty spaces; and so f u l l of terror is the night that i t seems to enclose and smother one, as would the hairy skin of some wild animal. Since a f e l l of timber is the total timber cut from an area, the word further denotes the complete des-truction of the day and the entrance into this d ark night of suffering. Another common experience of the person confronted by darkness or danger is that time seems to take on new di-mensions : Hopkins' struggle stretches before him until i t en-compasses not only discouraging days, but even years. So utterly alone is he that even his cries to heaven seem as \"dead letters\" to someone not there. Since the octave of this poem is a close, but intensified, re-creation of the experience which Hopkins describes in \"The Wreck of the Deutschland,\" tha reader tends to apply that poem's imagery to this new storm. In the sestet, the blackness of the night pierces even to the depths of the poet's being; he no longer feels bitterness; he is bitterness, gall, and heartburn. The impression which 9 p o r multiple meanings of \" f e l l \" see Raymond V. Schoder, S.J., \"An interpretive Glossary of Difficult Words in the Poems,\" The Immortal DiamondT edited by Norman Weyand, p . 2 1 2 . Also Anthony Thwaite, \"Gerard Manley Hopkins,\" Contemporary English Poetyy.(London; Heinemann, 1 9 5 9 ) , 23.\u00E2\u0080\u0094hereafter cited as Thwaite. the poet conveys in this line is that the struggle, begun in the senses (by the \"taste\"), has now become a soul-searing experience. Gall, a reminder of the Passion, connects Hopkins' sufferings with those of Christ.^ The line, \"bones built in me, flesh f i l l e d , blood brimmed the curse,\" echoes so closely the line of \"The Wreck of the Deutschland\"\u00E2\u0080\u0094\"Thou hast bound bones and veins in me, fashioned me flesh\" :\u00E2\u0080\u0094that the reader subconsciously recalls the remain-ing stanzas of \"The Wreck of the Deutschland\" and applies them to the poet's present situation. The terror of the night echoes: Thou heardst. me truer than tongue confess Thy terror, 0 Christ, 0 God; Thou knowest the walls, altar and hour and night: The swoon of a heart that the sweep and the hurl of thee trod Hard down with a horror of height: (11-15) and the \"cries countless\" that are like \"dead letters\" is a reminder of the cries for help of the shipwrecked people. In the octave also, Hopkins uses the homely image of the action of yeast on dough to draw his comparison\u00E2\u0080\u0094to clarify, his soul state. If the yeast is sour, the dough will not rise. Similarly, Hopkins feels that his \"selfish ego which makes his body, and hence his spirit, chafe and fret [is] souring his lOsee Gardner, II, p.339 - 82 -wholesomeness. f ,H Nevertheless, one ray of hope remains i n the blackness of t h i s night; f o r Hopkins r e a l i z e s , even at t h i s time, that h i s pl i g h t on earth has not reached the wretchedness of the l o s t souls,: t h e i r p l i g h t i s worse. One of the clearest d i s t i n c t i o n s between the \"night of the senses\" and \"the dark night of the soul\" i s the degree of a c t i v i t y which the sufferer i s s t i l l capable of. Since Hopkins can s t i l l a c t i v e l y hope, since he can s t i l l respond to the beauty of nature, and since he i s s t i l l a r t i c u l a t e enough to express his feelings i n poetry, i t i s j u s t i f i a b l e to consider t h i s poem as representing the i n i t i a l stages of the \"night of the senses.\" The storm of suffering, begun i n \"I wake and f e e l the f e l l of dark, not day,\" reaches i t s f u l l fury i n Sonnet 65, \"No worst, there i s none.\" The octave i s \"a dramatic present-ation of the emotion of mental anguish;\" the sestet, \"the speaker commenting of the experience.\" The whole poem represents the 12 pattern of Hopkins' struggles. The sonnet opens with the victinfe cry f o r help: i : LThwaite, p.24. l ^ S i s t e r Marcella M. Holloway, \"Sonnet 65: No Worst, there i s None,\" Explicator XIV, No. 8. (May 1956) No. 51. - S3 -No worst, there i s none. Pitched past p i t c h of g r i e f , More pangs w i l l , schooled at forepangs, wilder wring. Comforter, where, where i s your comforting? Mary, mother of us, where i s your r e l i e f ? My cr i e s heave, herds-long; huddle i n a main, a ch i e f Woe, world-sorrow; on an age-old a n v i l wince and sing-Then l u l l , then leave o f f . Fury had shrieked 'No l i n g -ering! Let me be f e l l : force I must be b r i e f . 0 the mind, mind has mountains; c l i f f s of f a l l F r i g h t f u l , sheer, no-man-fathomed. Hold them cheap May who ne'er hung there. Nor does long our small Durance deal with that steep or deep. Here! creep, Wretch, under a comfort serves i n a whirlwind: a l l L i f e death does end and each day dies with sleep. Throughout the sonnet, Hopkins has used nature imagery to present his inner struggle. The victim's cry f o r help i s answered only by the shriek of Fury. In his anguish, Hopkins c r i e s \"herdslong,\" f o r sorrow follows sorrow c l o s e l y as c a t t l e are wont to do when returning from pasture. \"World sorrow\" adds an \"underthought\" by revealing a new meaning to Hopkins' sufferings. His role i s that of a vic t i m f o r the sins 13 of the world. The Roman Catholic doctrine of vicarious suf-f e r i n g i s based upon the vicarious nature of the sufferings of Christ. Hopkins, as a vicarious sufferer, was applying to the following of Christ the same thoroughness which he applied to every other aspect of his l i f e . The \"age old a n v i l \" which forms his \"cross\" forces him to cry out, and to \"wince\" with 13For explanation of t h i s poem as an example of vicarious s u f f e r i n g see S i s t e r Mary Humiliata, \"Hopkins and the Prometheus Myth,\" Publications of Modern Language Association. LXX (March 1955) 58-68. * - 84 -pain. 1^ No hope seems to come from either heaven or earth. His cry, like Christ's cry of abandonment on the Cross, receives no answer except the shriek of Fury.1^ In the sestet, developed by means of evocative nature imagery, the poet recollects his anguish. He looks back over his struggle, and he considers the enormity of the suf-ferings which he has undergone. Mountains and depths, sheer c l i f f s , and dangerous precipices seem nearest to the peril he has tpasjsedi through. The mountains of the mind are not only sheer and frightful, but also \"no man fathomed.\" The line, \"Hold them cheap/ May who ne'er hung there,\" serves two pur-poses: i t emphasizes the depths of the suffering, and i t also shows man clinging to the c l i f f . Man hangs there, as i f sus-pended between earth and heaven. His cries to heaven seem fruitless; he can hope for nothing but destruction from below.^ In such a condition, man will grasp at whatever comfort he can. find\u00E2\u0080\u0094even the very elemental comfort of sleep. This thought of hope is a clear indication that Hopkins had not des-paired. l^Sister Mary Humiliata, p.65. 15See Heuser, p.89. i^See Heuser, p.89. - 85 -Two theories have been advanced to account for the \"underthought\" of the sheer c l i f f s . The fir s t theory, ad-vanced by Gardner, is that Hopkins had in mind the sheer cl i f f s of King Lear's despair.1? Its chief merit lies in the comparison of the causes of sufferings: Lear's suffering is caused by the ingratitude of his daughters, while Hopkins' stems from the seeming abandonment by his God. The second theory is that of the Prometheus myth.^ This theory emphasizes the vicarious nature of Hopkins' sufferings. Hopkins would be familiar with both of these sources, and may have had both in mind. The Prometheus myth, however, would seem the more probable, for the situation of Hopkins is nearer to that of Prometheus. Both suffer vicariously; both are completely helpless in sufferings which they can do nothing to prevent. The nature imagery in this sonnet i s successfully used to create the agony and tension which Hopkins requires. It has a com-pelling actuality which communicates Hopkins' mood to his reader. The symbolic meaning of the imagery makes the poem appear as a cry of soul to God. The f u l l agony of Hopkins' sufferings described in this poem is close to the \"night of the soul.\" Here the victim, suspended between heaven and the bottomless 17w. H. Gardner, Gerard Manley Hopkins, I, p.177 f f . \u00E2\u0080\u00A2^Sister Mary Humiliata, \"Hopkins and the Prometheus Myth,\" pp.58-68. \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 - 8 6 -abyss, can find no solace. The sonnet ends in a whirlwind as i f even that were a comfort. The sufferer's last thought is that the storm must abate because \"each day dies with sleep.\" Sonnet 6 4 \"Carrion Comfort,\" is the next phase of the struggle. In the danger, as Hopkins clings desperately to the sheer rock, one \"creature\" seems to offer him help and con-solation. It is \"Carrion Comfort\"\u00E2\u0080\u0094despair. Hardly beautiful, carrion is in fact the loathsome residue of something that once was beautiful, and which now is essentially evil. \"Carrion Comfort\" is Hopkins' refusal to feast on despair. He will not undo these last strains of man within him. Not, I ' l l not, carrion comfort, Despair, not feast on thee; Not untwist\u00E2\u0080\u0094slack they may be\u00E2\u0080\u0094these last strands of man In me or, most weary, cry I can no more. I can; Can something, hope, wish day come, not choose not to be. But ah, but 0 thou terrible, why wouldst thou rude on me Thy wring-world right foot rock? lay a lionlimb against me? scan With darksome devouring eyes my bruised bones? and fan, 0 in turns of tempest, me heaped there; me frantic to avoid thee and flee? Why? That my chaff might fly; my grain l i e , sheer and clear. Nay in a l l that t o i l , that coil, since (seems) I kissed the rod, Hand rather, my heart lol lapped strength, stole joy, would laugh, cheer. \u00E2\u0080\u0094 87 -Cheer whom though? the hero whose heaven-handling flung me, foot trod Me? or me that fought him? 0 which one? is i t each one? That night, that year Of now done darkness I wretch lay wrestling with (my God!) my God. Just what this temptation was\u00E2\u0080\u0094despair or a lesser dis-couragement\u00E2\u0080\u0094is not stated; neither is the strength of the temp-station described. It does however seem hard to reconcile the idea of actual despair (which some critics have suggested) with the faith of the man who could write: I was a Christian from birth or baptism, later I., was converted to the Catholic faith, and am enlisted 20 years in the Society of Jesus. I am now 44. I do not waver in my allegiance. I never have since my conversion to the Church.19 Whatever the temptation may have been, its involuntary nature is assured, for immediately after his cry of \"I can not more,\" Hopkins firmly states \"I can; /can something, hope, wish day come, not choose not to be\"{what I am). In the fi r s t quatrain Hopkins refuses to feast on Carrion Comfort; in the second, his adversary assumes the role of aggressor, while Hopkins, powerless to escape from under his \"world-rocking foot\" and to get beyond the reach of his \"lionlimb\" and his \"devouring eyes\" now seeks for escape in flight. The change of the relative positions of the opponents, as well as 19Further letters of Gerard Manley Hopkins, p.447, note J. - 88 -the s h i f t from the t h i r d person to the second, raises the question as to whether the opponent i n the second quatrain i s Carrion Comfort or whether i t i s God. The best explanation seems to \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 be that Carrion Comfort i s the immediate opponent; God, the ultimate one. In the sestet, there i s a change from the past to the present tense, which means that the struggle i s now past. Hopkins looks back over the struggle, and r e a l i z e s the reason f o r i t . Having accepted suffering, as would be required of a vicarious sufferer, Hopkins i s encouraged to continue the struggle. But he i s not sure whether he should cheer God, or cheer himself f o r having dared to wrestle with God. In the end, Hopkins contends with God, a f t e r the manner of Job. 2^ In \"Carrion Comfort\" nature imagery i s the vehicle by which Hopkins develops h i s thought. The repulsive carrion, the ultimate destruction to which a l l nature must submit, makes the sonnet a natural sequel to \"No worst, there i s none.\" The storm theme i s a further connecting l i n k between these two poems. In \"No Worst, there i s none,\" Hopkins shrinks before the shriek of \"Fury\" and seeks whatever comfort from the w h i r l -wind he can f i n d \u00E2\u0080\u0094 e v e n sleep. In \"Carrion Comfort\" Hopkins 20For a f u l l discussion of these issues of the sonnet see Thomas J. Assad, \"A Closer Look at Hopkins' \"Carrion Comfort,\" Tulane Studies i n English.VII-IX (1957-59), 91-102\u00E2\u0080\u0094hereafter. c i t e d as Assad. - 89 -s t i l l seeks escape from \"the turns of tempest.\" It is a terrifying experience to be crushed beneath the \"lion-limbed\" beast of 'prey and to be made its helpless victim. The head- < long flight is a physical parallel to Hopkins' flight from evil. The \"lionlimbed\" adversary with its \"darksome, devouring eyes\" suggest two \"underthoughts.\" The reader at once recalls \"The Tiger\" by Blake. The feeling of awe associated with Blake's tiger is now associated with the \"lion-limbed\" ad-versary of \"Carrion Comfort.\" Although no record has been found to prove that Hopkins had Blake's poem in mind at the time he wrote \"Carrion Comfort,\" Blake was popular at the time, 21 and Hopkins was interested in him. In a letter Hopkins writes: \"I have Blake's poems by me . . . . The best are of an ex-quisite freshness and lyrical inspiration . . .\"^2 The second \"underthought\" is suggested by the association of the \"lionlimbed\" adversary in the octave with the separation of the wheat from the chaff in the sestet. Together, these two images recall the story of St. Ignatius of Antioch, the early Christian martyr who, condemned to the lions in the am-phitheatre of Rome, declared that he must be ground in the 21See Anne King \"Hopkins' Windhover and Blake,\" English Studies. XXXVII (December 1956), 245-252. 22correspondence with Dixon, p.153. ---90 -jaws of the lion to produce the good wheat of Christ. This physical parallel to Hopkins* mental sufferings renders com-prehensible the reference both to the \"lionlimbed\" adversary with its \"darksome devouring eyes\" and to the separation of the wheat from the chaff. Hopkins* grain, too, must be \"sheer and clear,\" even though the nature of his martyrdom differs from that of St. Ignatius. The martyrdom of St. Ignatius seems a most probable source of \"the underthought\" of \"Carrion Comfort.\" Hopkins would be perfectly familiar with this story since, as a Roman Catholic priest, he would, each year, on February the f i r s t , celebrate Holy Mass in honor of St. Ignatius, the Martyr of Antioch. Nature imagery similar to that of the chaff and the grain used in \"Carrion Comfort\" is found in Hopkins* earlier poems. It is the harvest from which, Hopkins \"gleans the Savior\" in \"Hurrahing in Harvest.\" By this association with the thought of \"Hurrahing in Harvest,\" added significance, from the ideas of beauty and purpose already predicated to the harvest, is given to \"Carrion Comfort.\" The harvest theme also links \"Carrion Comfort\" with \"Spring and Fall,\" whose\"underthought\" is the inevitable approach of death and dissolution. Thus, both \"Hurrahing in Harvest\" and \"Spring and Fall\" are linked with \"Carrion Comfort\" by their expression of the nature imagery of the harvest season. By this association \"Carrion Comfort\" implies that Hopkins' struggle against evil is worth--.91 -while, and that he is right to resist \"Carrion Comfort, Despair.\" The final complete surrender to God's will rep-resented in \"Carrion Comfort\" is \"the triumph of the spirit over the flesh. 2^ On the scale of perfection, this is a fur-ther step towards the Unitive Way. While Hopkins here seems to be overwhelmed with terror at the struggle in which he is engaged, he clings to God with his will. \" I can; /can. something, hope, wish day come, not choose not to be.\" This is not achieved mysticism for, as Gardner assures us, \"The mystics have rarely attempted to describe 'the war within' (their purgative phase) in such vivid terms.\" But i t does, he continues, belong to the mystic way, for no mystical union is possible until \"self has been completely mastered.\"2^-With the rejection of \"Carrion Comfort, Despair,\" Hopkins has reached the turning point in his spiritual purgation. He has rejected evil. The next phase of the struggle is the positive submission to God's decree. This is the theme of Sonnet 74 \"Thou art indeed just.\" Though not always included as one of the \"terrible sonnets,\" Sonnet 74 belongs in the present grouping, for i t reveals an important turning point in Hopkins' struggle: 23Assad, p.101. 2A-Gardner.Gerard Manley Hopkins, II, p.335. - 92 -Thou art indeed just, Lord, i f I contend With thee; but, s i r , so what I plead i s j u s t . Why do sinners' ways prosper? and why must Disappointment a l l I endeavour end? Wert thou my enemy, 0 thou my f r i e n d , How wouldst thou worse, I wonder, than thou dost Defeat, thwart me? Oh, the sots and t h r a l l s of l u s t Do i n spare hours more thriv e than I that spend, S i r , l i f e upon thy cause. See, banks and brakes Now, leaved how thick I laced they are again With f r e t t y c h e r v i l , look, and fresh wind shakes Them; birds b u i l d - but not I b u i l d ; no, but s t r a i n , Time's eunuch, and not breed one work that wakes. Mine, 0 thou l o r d of l i f e , send my roots r a i n . -The sentiments expressed i n t h i s sonnet follow c l o s e l y Hopkins' retreat notes, f o r January 1888: I was continuing t h i s t r a i n of thought concerning d i f f i c u l t i e s when I began to enter on that course of loathing and hopelessness which I have so often f e l t before, which made me fear madness and led me to give up the practice of meditation except, as now, i n retreat and here i t i s again. I could therefore do no more than repeat \"Justus es, Domine, et rectum judicium tuum\" and the l i k e , and then being t i r e d I nodded and woke with a s t a r t . What i s my wretched l i f e ? Five wasted years almost have passed i n Ireland. I am ashamed of the l i t t l e I have done, of my waste of time, although my helplessness and weakness i s such that I could scarcely do otherwise. . . . . A l l my undertakings miscarry: I am l i k e a s t r a i n i n g eunuch. I wish then f o r death: yet i f I died now I shd. die imperfect, no master of myself, and that i s the worst picture of a l l . 0 my God, look down to me.25 These notes confirm the autobiographical character of the sonnets. Moreover, t h i s complete account of Hopkins' d i s -couragement and hopelessness throws considerable l i g h t upon 25Further Letters, p.447, Note J - 9 3 -the real nature of his struggle. It justifies the consid-eration that a large portion of Hopkins' sufferings came from his oversensitive, ardent temperament. For Hopkins to do less than what was perfect was always to have failed to reach the standard; this was a t r i a l in i t s e l f . In both his notes and his sonnets, Hopkins reaches the comforting conclusion that, since \"Justus es Domine et rectum judicium tuum,\" he may confide his sufferings to God and rest in Him. The phase of struggle which this sonnet reveals is that Hopkins, although s t i l l suffering and s t i l l struggling, has come to the realization that God, in His inscrutable justice, requires this suffering to separate the wheat from the chaff. Though Hopkins recognizes God's justice, he does not understand i t , and he complains to God that the treatment he is receiving is more befitting God's enemies than His friends. The \"sots and thralls of lust\" prosper, while everthing he does ends in failure in spite of his dedication to Christ's service. Heuser considers that Hopkins \"pleads his cause\"2^ as a lawyer would, setting forth his case in a correct and respectful manner. Gardner calls i t a \"masterly pleading,\"2? a n d considers i t the real beginning of Hopkins' recovery. 26Heuser, p.93. 27Gardner, II, p.365. - 9 ^ -I n the s e s t e t , Hopkins r e i n f o r c e s h i s argument by analogies from nature. His main contention i s t h a t , while a l l nature i s f u l f i l l i n g i t s purpose, he alone s t r a i n s , as \"time's eunuch,\" and does not succeed. The sonnet ends w i t h a prayer of humble submission from t h i s needy s o u l to the \" l o r d of l i f e \" to \"send my roots r a i n . \" The f i r s t nature image employed i s that of the banks and brakes, t h i c k w i t h f o l i a g e and i n t e r t w i n e d w i t h l a c y c h e r v i l . The brakes are heavy clumps or t h i c k e t s of underbrush or bushes which grow w i l d . They experience no r e s t r a i n t , yet God i s s a t i s f i e d w i t h them. The c h e r v i l , or cow p a r s l e y , a n a t i v e of Europe, i s common throughout the B r i t i s h I s l e s . I t has curved leaves which give that l a c y appearance which Hopkins loved i n nature o b j e c t s . Geoffrey Grigson a s s e r t s that the f r e t t y c h e r v i l i s a key p l a n t : which leaves and l a c e s the banks and brakes . . . i n c o n trast to Hopkins himself who was then the eunuch of time w i t h no water at h i s roots . . .The f r e t t y c h e r v i l i s that species which so w h i t e l y and l a c i l y i s part of the j u i c e and joy . . . along every road and every lane of Hopkins' elmy England.28 The smell of the c h e r v i l i s so a t t r a c t i v e to the bees that beehives are rubbed w i t h i t to induce the swarming of the bees. Since reference to the honey and to the honeycomb i s Grigson, Gerard Manley Hopkins, p.2h. - 95 -found in \"Patience hard thing!\" the imagery of this vine-like creeper becomes a link between the two sonnets. At the same time, i t . i s a true description of English scenery. Not only do plants \"utter God\" by f u l f i l l i n g what He purposes. Birds \"utter God\" by building, Hopkins uses this nature imagery as a contrast to his own poetic sterility. Birds build nests for reproduction; but, as \"time's eunuch,\" he can produce no poetry that \"wakes.\" As symbols of peace, nesting birds form a second point of contrast with Hopkins, who can neither find internal peace nor bring peace to the Irish with whom he is living. The frustrated cry of the un-productive poet is further contrasted with nature's harmony by his cry: \"Mine: 0 thou Lord of l i f e , send my roots rain.\" In the world of nature, the brakes and the fretty chevril require water for survival and growth, and their roots receive the rain they require. But Hopkins, like the barren fig-tree of the Gospel, finds his \"roots\" withered by crippling sterility. Only inspiration, or grace, can revive him. Yvor Winters finds the imagery of this sonnet \"irrelevant to the problemrt2%nd states that the poem ends with a sexual image and a vegetative image in somewhat curious conjunction; neither is 29Yvor Winters, p.88. - 9 6 -p a r t i c u l a r l y good i n i t s e l f and neither i s p a r t i c u l a r l y appropriate to the theme; both are t r i t e . But i f the sonnet i s considered i n the t o t a l context of the \" t e r r i b l e sonnets,\" t h i s nature imagery i s most appropriate. The juxtaposition of the sexual image and the vegetable image serve to draw a p a r a l l e l between natural l i f e , supported by the r a i n received through the roots of the c h e r v i l \u00E2\u0080\u0094 t h e \" j u i c e \" and \"joy\" of the countryside\u00E2\u0080\u0094and s p i r i t u a l l i f e which i s nourished by the grace of God. The storm has not yet abated but there i s now a note of quiet expectancy. This Impression i s strengthened by the peaceful q u a l i t y of the nature imagery. The sense of approaching peace brings Hopkins to a moment of respite such as can be obtained only by sub-mission to '.'God's most just decrees.\" \"This b e l i e f i n God's j u s t i c e forms the p i t h and marrow of what we c a l l his powers of ' r e c o v e r y 1 . \" 3 \u00C2\u00B0 \"The masterful pleading\" with which the poem ends i s an expression of hope that God w i l l send help i f Hopkins has the patience required to wait f o r God's time. This new phase of struggle which Hopkins describes i n Sonnet 70, \"Patience, hard thing'.,\" conveys the impression that the fury of the storm has abated: 3\u00C2\u00B0Gardner, I I , p . 3 6 5 \u00C2\u00BB - 97 -Patience, hard thingl the hard thing but to pray, But bid for, Patience i s ! Patience who asks Wants war, wants wounds; weary his times, his tasks; To do without, take tosses, and obey. Rare patience roots in these, and, these away, Nowhere. Natural heart's ivy, Patience masks Our ruins of wrecked past purpose. There she basks Purple eyes and seas of liquid leaves a l l day. We hear our hearts grate on themselves: i t k i l l s To bruise them dearer. Yet the rebellious wills Of us we bid God bend to him even so. And where is he who more and more distils Delicious kindness?\u00E2\u0080\u0094He is patient. Patience f i l l s His crisp combs, and that comes those ways we know. The theme of this sonnet is patience, and the means of obtaining i t . Patience is difficult; i t is hard even to pray for, because asking for patience is also asking for difficulties and for suffering. Patience involves doing without things, taking one's chances for the future, and obeying^ But i t is on just such self-renunciation that patience thrives. Yet Hopkins will ask God, in spite of what i t involves, to bend his \"rebellious\" will to Him. By patience he will reach God. But this patience will only be attained by sacrifice\u00E2\u0080\u0094\"those ways we know.\" In the sestet, the use of the first person plural gives i t a universal application, making patience the remedy for the \"world-sorrow\" of \"No worst, there is none.\" The nature imagery of this sonnet hinges on two main images; the patience plant, or ivy, and the honeycomb. The f i r s t quatrain contains no direct nature imagery; but through \"who asks / Wants war, wants wounds\" and its expression of \"weary\" -\u00C2\u00BB 98 -time and tasks, i t suggests both the struggle to obtain patience and the weariness caused by the struggle. \"Take tosses\" is used in the sense of \"takes chances\" as to what the future will bring.* By the suggested picture of a small boat being tossed on a stormy sea, i t also implies a storm at sea, and i t thereby keeps the idea of a storm before the reader's mind. The second quatrain develops the symbol of the patience plant. The word \"patience\" is used to signify both the patience that the heart must possess, and the patience plant or ivy with its heart-shaped flower. When the ivy plant \"takes root!! on a ruin i t masks (covers) the ruin so that i t , once again, appears beautiful. The ivy, with i t s \"purple eyes\" basks the whole day, its purple berries glinting in the sun and its leaves rippling liquidly in the air. Patience, too, must take firm root. The virtue of patience will mask the \"ruins of wrecked, past purposes,\" so that a l l unworthy inclinations and desires are concealed, and the person, once more, through patience, appears to the best advantage. The words \"roots\" does two things. It forms direct connection with \"Thou art indeed just,\" for, when Hopkins prays, \"Mine 0 thou lord of l i f e , send my roots rain,\" one of the \"roots\" he desires is that of patience. It also expresses the need of this suffering, since patience takes a firm root only in such suffering. The ivy plant further emphasizes Hopkins' condition at the time he wrote the sonnet. The ivy is a symbol of both weakness and perseverance; i t must rely on other plants for support, but by perseverance i t manages to survive and to climb upwards. Similarly, Hopkins feels himself to be weak, but he continues to cling to God that he, too, may survive and aspire towards God. The imagery of the fi r s t tercet is closely connected with the ideas of war and strife, and of submission. \"Grating\" denotes prisons\u00E2\u0080\u0094not simple prisons, but dungeon holds whose very doors grate as they close. Thrust into such a dungeon, the prisoner feels that he has reached the depth of suffering; there can be \"no worst.\" Yet there Is more. Long imprisonment?; finally wears the prisoner down until he submits to his lot. Similarly, Hopkins closes the door of his heart to the things for which he naturally wishes, such as peace, security, and his own will. But this is not the end. He must learn, even beyond this, a greater submission to God's will which comes through Patience; and for this submission he finally asks in spite of the suffering i t causes. The honeycomb is the controlling image in the last tercet. The bee distils its sweetness In honey; and patience must f i l l man's \"honeycomb,\" his soul, with the sweetness of God's grace. Patience \"comes those ways we know,\" that i s , i t is to be attained by \"the war,\" \"wounds,\" and weariness already listed. Honey and the honeycomb enter into Biblical passages frequently, and are often considered as a mark of God's grace and favour. - 100 -The ancients knew nothing sweeter than honey, so that honey was t h e i r symbol of sweetness. The Promised Land was to be \"a land flowing with milk and honey.\" Again, \"Pleasing words are a honey-comb.\"31 i n both these contexts honey, l i k e the patience Hopkins i s i n search of, i s considered something desi r a b l e . Moreover, the honey-comb i s the source of beeswax from which the best candles are made. Tallow candles and o i l lamps smoke and give o f f an unpleasant odour. Beeswax candles have a pleasant smell, and have always been associated with sunshine and flowers. Being t o t a l l y consumed, the beeswax candle i s a r e l i g i o u s symbol denoting t o t a l dedication to God. The symbolism of the honeycomb suggests a possible \"underthought\" which greatly enriches the meaning of the sonnet\u00E2\u0080\u0094 that of the Pascal Candle. Two reasons underlie t h i s sug-gestion. F i r s t , i t i s a most appropriate symbol of Hopkins' recovery from his i n t e r n a l struggles; secondly, Hopkins would be p e r f e c t l y f a m i l i a r with both the ceremony and i t s symbolism, and would be further attracted by the nature imagery of the prayer used i n i t s blessing. The Pascal Candle, made of pure beeswax, i s blessed during ^Proverbs, 16, 2*+. 101 -the ceremonies of Holy Saturday (Easter Eve). Its symbolism looks both to the past and to the future. It symbolizes the deliverance of the Children of Israel from the Egyptian Captivity, and i t further symbolizes the risen Christ, the Light of the world, who, by his Death and Resurrection, has freed man from the far greater captivity of sin. As the Israelites crossed the Red Sea and came to the Promised Land, the land \"flowing with milk and honey,\" so Hopkins has passed through his period of t r i a l to the peace which comes through suffering, and which is symbolized by the \"crisp\" combs. His deliverance from suffering is to be reached through a patience similar to that of the bee. Finally, the honeycomb produces the Pascal Candle which is totally consumed in God's service, and Hopkins, by his total surrender to God through Patience, reaches Christ, the Light of the World. Through the exercise of a Job-like patience, Hopkins reaches the final phase of spiritual purgation. The suffering so sorely trying him is s t i l l present; but, possessing his soul in peace, he learns, while waiting for the alleviation of his trials, to take pity on his own weary soul. Sonnet 71, \"My Own heart let me have more pity on,\" expresses Hopkins' realization that one of the greatest obstacles to his return to peace is his own inpatient self: My own heart let me more have pity on; let Me live to my sad self hereafter kind, Charitable; not live this tormented mind With this tormented mind tormenting yet. - 102 -I cast f o r comfort I can no more get By groping round my comfortless, than b l i n d Eyes i n t h e i r dark can day or t h i r s t can f i n d T h i r s t ' s a l l - i n - a l l a world of wet. Soul, s e l f ; come, poor Jackself, I do advise You, jaded, l e t be; c a l l o f f thoughts awhile Elsewhere; leave comfort root-room; l e t joy size At God knows when to God knows what; whose smile 's not wrung, see you; unforeseen times r a t h e r \u00E2\u0080\u0094 a s skies Betweenpie mountains\u00E2\u0080\u0094lights a lovely mile. He c a l l s upon his own soul to relax and to t r u s t that God w i l l return i n His own time and i n His own way; he t e l l s himself that he must have more charity, more p i t y towards t h i s poor \" J a c k s e l f rather than drive him on mercilessly through these d i f f i c u l t i e s . \"Jackself,\" a Hopkinsian coinage, represents \"the useful, hard-working, undistinguished\" person.^ 2 I t i s s u i t a b l y used to r e f e r to Hopkins. Although no nature imagery i s found i n the f i r s t quatrain of t h i s sonnet, \"the tormented mind/With t h i s tormenting mind tormenting yet\" reminds the reader of the \"hearts grating\" of \"Patience, hard thing.\" There i s , however, a subtle difference i n the two images. In Sonnet 71, i t i s the mind which has become the prison, while Hopkins i s not only the prisoner but also the j a i l e r tormenting himself. His delicate, sensitive nature increased the torments beyond what another person would 32Gardner, Gerard Manley Hopkins, I, p.119 - 103 -feel. Although the world is s t i l l the same dark, comfortless world as i t was when this \" f e l l \" suffering closed in upon him, patience how makes his lot easier. This lightening of care is felt by the reader both in the more confident mood of the poem and in the choice of words used. His spiritual darkness leaves Hopkins as unable to see in his comfortless prison as a blind man groping his way in the broad light of day. Hopkins can no more find comfort than can a thirsty man find drink in \"a world of wet.\" Both nature images are symbolic of the dark night of suffering through which Hopkins is passing as he treads the parched and rocky path of spiritual desolation. As the thirsty man in the \"world of wet,\" Hopkins, by his cry, \"Send my roots rain,\" expresses his thirst for the return of God's sensible presence. In the sestet, Hopkins urges his poor \"Jackself\" to \"call off\" thoughts awhile, and give comfort \"root-room.\" \"Call off\" carries with i t the thought of hounds worrying and tormenting their \"jaded\" prey. As the dogs must be called off to give the prey respite, so now he must cease his troubled thinking. Comfort must have \"root-room.\" This second root (of comfort) must be planted beside the patience of \"Patience, hard thing,\" for the two roots thrive together. With patience near, comfort will \"size\" (increase) when and how God wants i t to. In the close connection between \"comfort\" and \"joy\" there is even a hint of birds and their songs, for \"Comfort\" reflects the - 104 -reflects the \"Comforter\" of the Holy Ghost, so often symbolized in the form of a Dove, and \"Joy\" is one of the fruits attrib-uted:': to the presence of the Holy Ghost. A further inter-pretation of these lines is given by Robert Boyle who considers that \"the protagonist, the eyes, and thirst are a l l compared on the basis of yearning, searching, and not finding. Each one of them is involved, within its own branch, in metaphor, so really three metaphors are compared among themselves to make up one simile.\"33 This newly found peace will continue to increase until Hopkins, once more, experiences \"the smile\" of God, a \"smile\" neither wrung from God nor extracted by force, but given freely and often unexpectedly. This \"smile\" of God is expressed by the last nature image of the series of poems; i t . i s one of the most beautiful of the group. A mountain climber may have an unexpected but welcome surprise when he rounds a sharp corner on the mountain. He expected to find nothing but for-bidding rock. Instead, he finds that the mountains have opened out, revealing a long vista of sky between two mountains. The sun, shining upon the clouds, tints them a l l colors. The traveller, viewing this lovely stretch of \"pied\" beauty, finds It so much the more beautiful because i t is so unexpected. 33ttThe Imagery of Hopkins,\" Thought, XXV, No. 136 (Spring I960) 70. ~- 105 -In the same way, Hopkins, trudging up the mountain to God through the darkness of s p i r i t u a l desolation, f e e l s that, i n God's good time and i n God's own way, the mountains w i l l open and (since God r i g h t l y dwells upon the mountain tops) reveal the \"smile\" of God, which w i l l l i g h t \"a l o v e l y mile\" it of h is journey through l i f e . The seven sonnets discussed i n t h i s chapter are an ex-pression of Hopkins' sufferings during the l a s t years of h i s l i f e . When his t r i a l s are compared with the t r i a l s that a f f l i c t the soul during the \"night of the senses\" or \"the dark night of the soul.\" t h e i r s i m i l a r i t y i s immediately evident. Like souls i n these states, Hopkins' s u f f e r i n g i s fundamentally the s u f f e r i n g of a deeply r e l i g i o u s man who fe e l s himself alienated from God. Both the external causes of Hopkins' sufferings, and the, pattern which these suf-ferings followed make i t possible to think of Hopkins as passing through the various stages of these states. However, the t h e o logical aspect of Hopkins' condition a f f e c t s the student of l i t e r a t u r e only i n so f a r as i t establishes the r e a l i t y of such a s p i r i t u a l purgation and leads to a truer understanding of the poet. The main inter e s t l i e s i n the fact that these t r i a l s were the occasions of some of the most be a u t i f u l of a l l Hopkins' poems. Nature imagery i s so i n t e r -woven with the thought of these sonnets that, by forming an - 106 -essential part of their total inscape of suffering, i t serves to make these sonnets at once more beautiful and more forceful. These sonnets^\u00E2\u0080\u0094one of which Hopkins assures Bridges was \"written in blood\"\u00E2\u0080\u0094indicate the depth and poignancy of his suffering. Since Hopkins never intended these poems for publication, they may be considered as expressions both of Hopkins' own weariness and frustration and of his trust in the God who has sent him these trials. CHAPTER V 'CONCLUSION: \"THEE, GOD^ I COME FROM, TO THEE GO.\" The sufferings and dejection which Hopkins experienced, especially during the crucial years he spent in Ireland, might well have led to despair a man of lesser faith. That Hopkins kept faith was, in some degree, due to his vivid awareness of the pulsing, throbbing l i f e around him; for he could, at a l l times, see in nature the reflection of the Creator. Nature revealed itself to him so intimately that he found i t a logical vehicle of expression. Nature is, in fact, one of the great unifying factors in Hopkins' poetry. The analysis of Hopkins' nature poetry in the previous chapters has demonstrated that nature forms one complete and consistent aspect of his poetry, and that this aspect is in keeping with the poet's own attitudes towards l i f e . Three \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 categories of Hopkins' nature poetry have been discussed. In the simple nature poetry, Hopkins expresses a sensuous love of the colors, the sights, and the sounds of the world around him. In other poems, Hopkins celebrates the grandeur of God through the beauty and variety of God's creation. In this group of poems, Hopkins expresses God's greatness and His grandeur by its revelation in the world of nature. Most of these poems - 108 -have the same theme: the beauty of a l l nature as the expression of the s t i l l greater beauty of nature's Creator. The wind-hover, the \"Binsey\" poplars, and the moon disentangling its e l f from the mountain are three of a long l i s t of nature objects whose imagery Hopkins uses inscape both the beauty of nature and the greatness of God. Nature is also a unifying factor in the \"terrible sonnets\" in which nature imagery expresses God's power, His justice and His mercy. Hopkins' distinctly different use of nature results in an entirely different impression. Generally, the terrible sonnets are not classed as nature poetry, for, in them, nature imagery is less prominent than i t is in his other poems. But the unity of theme of the \"terrible sonnets\" is reinforced by the intensity of the nature imagery as well as by the similarity of the images used and the repetition of the same images. Through nature imagery, Hopkins arrives at a continuity and completeness of form which allows these sonnets to be considered as seven parts of one master poem rather than as seven distinct sonnets. This use of nature also makes i t possible to consider the sonnets as different aspects of one protracted struggle. The \"terrible sonnets\" are, therefore, unified to a special degree by their nature imagery. Hopkins' nature poems may be qualified by the two adjectives, \"beautiful\" and\"dynamic.\" Hopkins could seek out beauty in the most ordinary object, and he could express that beauty in - 109 -words which make his reader see the same beauty. Because Hopkins sees each object of nature as existing for the definite purpose of praising God, he is able to invest a l l nature imagery with the dynamic quality peculiar to his poetry. Hopkins' intense apprehension of each object in its least detail led him to accept philosophical principles which, like that of Duns Scotus, considers the essence of each object to be in its individual distinctiveness. The effect of this philosophy is expressed in Hopkins' poetry through his poetic theories of inscape and instress. Inscape is the essence of the object revealed by the intuitive glance which allows the beholder to grasp the inner significance of the object. Instress is a term which may imply either the principle of actuality of the object or, more often, the perfection of being, proper to that object. Hopkins' poetry is in harmony with his literary charac-teristics. In a l l his poetry Hopkins seeks to express his inscape in the tersest and most forceful way possible. To do this he prunes and trims his work. The increased terse-ness of expression is observable in Hopkins' later poems, especially in the \"terrible sonnets.\" Hopkins' ability to express two levels of meaning by the same image makes i t possible for him to combine in his writing the \"overthought\" which describes the beauty of the natural image, and the \"underthought\" which expresses the inscape of the greatness of - 110 -the Creator. Hopkins accomplishes this by using a description of nature, followed by a comment or application. Beauty is obtained by the use of such.poetic techniques as alliteration, word compounding, and coinage, as well as by Hopkins' special use of metre. The beauty of Hopkins* poetry, therefore, depends upon both the thought of the poem and the expression which he gives to that thought. Two poems might be taken as a final illustration of Hopkins' ability to combine simple nature imagery with the \"underthought\" of Creation, or Redemption. At the same time, they may be considered as the concluding poems of the \"terrible sonnets.\" The \"underthought\" of \"That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the comfort of the Resurrection\" is that l i f e and death are a part of God's eternal plan for man. At first glance, the fire of Heraclitus may seem to be a rather odd symbol for the Christian theme of l i f e , death, and resurrection. But a l i t t l e reflection will be enough to convince the reader that this is one of Hopkins' most un-expected and appropriate choices. Heraclitus taught that the basic element of a l l things is fire, and that a l l things exist in a state of flux. In his sonnet, Hopkins uses this Heraclitean theory but he also introduces the three other elements of earth, air, and water as subordinate symbols to the Heraclitean flux. The philosophic explanation of this - I l l -poem i s adequately dealt with by both Gardner 1 and Heuser 2. In t h i s present study further considerations may be added. Because the sonnet was written i n 1888, some months before Hopkins' death, i t s theme can e a s i l y be linked with that of the \" t e r r i b l e sonnets.\" In the \" t e r r i b l e sonnets\" the nature imagery i s dark, tempestuous, and t e r r i f y i n g . \"That Nature i s a Heraclitean F i r e \" has a l l the beauty and tran-q u i l i t y of a peaceful morning a f t e r a night of storm. The nature imagery used i s f a m i l i a r to everyone, but Hopkins elevates i t to the higher l e v e l i n which these common things of l i f e become symbolic of both the Grandeur of God and,of His Mercy and Goodness to man. Nature imagery i s used to express t h i s new \"lease\" on l i f e . This i s a morning when a l l the \" j u i c e \" and the \"joy\" of Creation makes i t good to be a l i v e . Over the skies the c l o u d s \u00E2\u0080\u0094 \" p u f f b a l l s , \" \"pillows\" [rest; at last!] and \"heaven ro y s t e r e r s \" \u00E2\u0080\u0094 t h r o n g . . (LXXTI, 1-2). The wind laps up the water i n \"pools\" and \"rut-peel patches\" u n t i l the \"ooze\" becomes f i r s t \"dough,\" then \"crust,\" and, f i n a l l y , \"dust.\" Man's foot-p r i n t s , made during the \"treadmire\" t o i l of the storm, are being o b l i t e r a t e d . Nature's \"millioned-fueled bonfire\" burns on, changing a l l things through the continuous f l u x . Here Gardner I, p.l6l-5 2Heuser, p.93-94. - 112 -\"the underthought\" of the poem-becomes apparent, f o r not only are the signs of yesterday's storm blotted out but even man and man's \"footsteps,\" his place even, becomes o b l i t e r a t e d and forgotten. This i s the earthly end of man. The subsequent corruption of the body i s described by imagery which i s s t a r t l i n g , and yet t h e o l o g i c a l l y exact. The f l e s h dies and i s corrupted through the action of \"the residuary worm.\" Man returns to ashes. \"Ashes\" are \"the dust\" to which man returns. But t h i s i s not the r e a l fate of the C h r i s t i a n . He i s not there. The triumphant Cross of Easter Sunday shines across \"the floundering deck\" as a symbol of hope. Freed from \"his bonehouse,\" man has, at l a s t , found his r e a l place by the side of C h r i s t . Christ's death assures man that his body w i l l r i s e i n glory. No more appropriate symbol could be found of t h i s culminating stage of the Incarnation-Redemption theme than that of the \"diamond.\" As i t i s found i n nature, the diamond does not show i t s beauty: i t i s rough and d u l l . I t must be polished u n t i l t h i s poor \"Jackself\" has become the \"immortal diamond.\" The highly developed imagery of t h i s sonnet contrasts with the s i m p l i c i t y of imagery i n the fragment, \"Thee God I come from, to Thee go,\" i n which, i n the f i r s t seven l i n e s of nature imagery, Hopkins gives the theme of the poem, sub-mission to God's w i l l and confidence i n his guidance: Thee, God, I come from, to Thee go, A l l day long I l i k e fountain flow - 113 -From thy hand out, swayed about Mote-like in thy mighty glow. What I know of thee I bless, As acknowledging thy stress On my being . . . As water flows from a fountain so man receives his l i f e , minute by minute, from God's hand. Man's l i f e i s like the mote which assumes beauty in the \"mighty glow\" of God's grace which sways i t . These six lines are a good example of Hopkins' ability to use nature imagery to express a religious thought. Throughout his l i f e , Hopkins retained his sensuous love of nature; i t was as a thread of gold running through both his dullest and his most difficult moments. Hopkins' awareness of the beauty of nature invests his poetry with a singularly direct, powerful, and beautiful quality. Yet he never loses sight of the fact that nature, for a l l its beauty, is but the \"utterance\" of its Creator. Hopkins' inscape is ever ac-companied by the deeper thought of the God who created nature and to whom he dedicated his own l i f e . - 114 -BIBLIOGRAPHY I. Bibliographies Consulted Annual Bibliography of English Language and Li t e r a t u r e . Edited by Mary S. Serjeant soil f o r Modern Humanities Research Association. London: Cambridge University Press. 1920-1949. Bateson, F.'W. Cambridge Bibliography of English L i t e r a t u r e . I l l New York: Macmillan Co* 1941, Supplement,'Vol.Vr Edited by George Watson. London: Oxford University Press. 1957. Bibliographies of Studies i n V i c t o r i a n L i t e r a t u r e . Edited by W. D. Templeman, from Modern Philology. XXX-XLIII. 1933-1945, including supplement edited by A. Wright f o r 1946-1954. Bischoff, D. Anthony, S.J. \"The Manuscripts of Gerard-Manley Hopkins.\" Thought, XXVI. No. 103. (1951-1952), 551-580. Charney, Maurice. \"A Bi b l i o g r a p h i c a l Study of Hopkins C r i t i c i s m , 1913-1949.\" Thought, XXV (1950), 297-326. Pick, John. \"Gerard Manley Hopkins,\" The Vi c t o r i a n Poets. Edited by Frederic E. Faverty. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1956. Weyand, Norman. Immortal Diamond. Studies i n Gerard Manley Hopkins. Edited by Norman Weyand, S.J. with the assistance of Raymond V. Schoder, S.J. London: Sheed and Ward, 1949. I I . Works of Gerard Manley Hopkins The Correspondence of Gerard Manley\"Hopkins and Richard Watson Dixon. Edited with notes and an introduction by Claude Colleer Abbott. London: Oxford University Fress. 1935. Second(revised) impression. London, New York: Oxford University Press. 1955. - 114a-Further Letters of Gerard Manley Hopkins Including His Correspondence with Coventry Patmore. Edited with Notes and an Introduction by Claude Colleer Abbott. London: Oxford University Press. 1937. Second edi t i o n , revised and enlarged, London. 1956. A Hopkins Reader. Edited with an Introduction by John Pick. New York: Oxford University Press. 1953. The Letters of Gerard Manley Hopkins to Robert Bridges. Edited .with-Notes and an Introduction by Claude Colleer Abbott. London: Oxford University Press. 1935. Second (revised) impression. 1955. Journals and Papers. Edited by Humphrey House, completed by Graham Storey. London, New York: Oxford University Press. 19597. The Notebooks and Papers of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Edited by Humphry House. London, New York:. Oxford University Press. 1937. -Poems and Prose of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Selected with an introduction and notes by W. H. Gardner. Penguin edi t i o n . London: Unwin Brothers. 1953. Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Edited with Notes by Robert Bridges. Second Edition, with an Appendix of Additional Poems, and a C r i t i c a l Introduction by Charles Williams. London: Oxford University Press. 1930. Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Third edition, the f i r s t e d i t i o n with preface and notes by Robert Bridges, enlarged and edited with notes and biographical introduction by W. H. Gardner. London, New York: Oxford University Press. 1948. The Sermons and Devotional Writings of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Edited by Christopher Devlin. London: Oxford University Press. 1959. - 115 -I I I . Books on the L i f e and Poetry Downes, David A. Gerard Manley Hopkins: A Study of His Ignatian S p i r i t . New York: Bookman Associates, 1959. Gardner, W. H. Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889): A Study of Poetic Idiosyncrasy i n r e l a t i o n to Poetic T r a d i t i o n . Vol. I. Second revised e d i t i o n . London: Martin, Seeker and Warburg, 1943. F i r s t published i n 1944. Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889): A Study of Poetic Idiosyncracy i n r e l a t i o n to Poetic Tradition . Vol. I I . London: Martin, Seeker and Warburg, 1949. Grigson, Geoffery. Gerard Manley Hopkins. Published f o r the B r i t i s h Counsel and the National Book League. London, New York, Toronto: Longmans, Green and Co. F i r s t published i n 1955, reprinted i n 1958. Heuser, Alan. The Shaping Vi s i o n of Gerard Manley Hopkins. London, New York: Oxford University Press. 1958. Immortal Diamond: Studies i n Gerard Manley Hopkins. Edited by Norman Weyand with the assistance of Raymond V. Schoder, introduction by John Pick. London: Sheed and Ward. 1949. K e l l y , Bernard. The Mind and Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins. London: Pepler & Sewell, 1935. Lahey, G. F., S.J. Gerard Manley Hopkins. London, New York: Oxford University Press. 1930. Martin, P h i l i p Montagne. Mastery and Mercy: A Study of Two Religious Poems. London: Oxford University Press. 1957. Peters, W. A. M., S.J. Gerard Manley Hopkins: A C r i t i c a l Essay towards the Understanding of his Poetry. London, New York: Oxford University Press. 1948. - 116 -Phare, E l s i e Elizabeth. The Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins; A Survey and Commentary. Cambridge: The Cambridge University Press, 1933. Pick, John. Gerard Manley Hopkins. P r i e s t and Poet. London: Oxford University Press. 1942. R i t z , Jean Georges. Robert Bridges and Gerard Hopkins. 1863-1889. a L i t e r a r y Friendship. London: Oxford University Press. I960. Ruggles, Eleanor. Gerard Manley Hopkins: A L i f e . New York: W.W. Norton and Co., .1944. IV. Essays i n Books Collin,A.C. \"Hopkins and E l i o t , \" English L i t e r a t u r e of the Twentieth Century. Fourth E d i t i o n . London, 1951. ~~ pp. 51-78. i Bremond, Andre. \"Art and I n s p i r a t i o n , \" New Verse. XIV. 1935. pp.5-12. . \u00E2\u0080\u0094 Daiches, David. \"Gerard Manley Hopkins,\" Studies i n Modern Lit e r a t u r e . Edinburgh: Oliver and/Boyd. 1936. pp. 23-51. D'Arcy Martin C , S.J. \"Gerard Manley Hopkins,\" Great Catholics. Edited by Claude Williamson. New York: MacMillan Co. 1939. pp. 353-366. Evans, B. I f o r . \"Gerard Manley Hopkins and T. S. E l i o t , \" T r a d i t i o n and. Romanticism. New l o r k : Longmans, Green and Co. 1940. pp. 185-200. Fausset, Hugh I 1Anson. \" C o n f l i c t of P r i e s t and Poet i n Hopkins,\" Poets and Pundits. New Haven: Yale University Press. 1947. pp. 104-113. - 117 -. \"Gerard Hopkins: A Centenary Tribute,\" Poets and Pundits. New Haven: Yale University Press. 1947. pp. 96-103. Hartman, Geoffrey H. The Unmeditated V i s i o n . New Haven: Yale University Press. 1954. pp. 47-67. House, Humphry.\"Gerard Manley Hopkins,\" A l l i n Due Time. London: Rupert Hart-Davis. 1955. Contains three essays: \"Celebrating Centennial of B i r t h , \" 159-163 (Reprinted from the Listener. 1944) pp. 164-168. Reprinted from Times L i t e r a r y Supplement. No. 1669 (Jan. 25, 1934). Review of 1 E l s i e Phare's The Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins). pp.169-174. Reprinted from Time's L i t e r a r y Supplement. No. 1721. (Jan. 31, 1935). Kranz, G i l b e r t . \"Gerard Manley Hopkins,\" translated.from French by J.R. Foster. Modern Christian L i t e r a t u r e . Twentieth Century Encyclopedia. New York: Hawthorne Books. I960, pp. 118-126. Leavis, Frank Raymond. \"Gerard Manley Hopkins,\" New Bearings. London: Chatto and Windus, 1950, pp.159-193. \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 \"Metaphysical I s o l a t i o n , \" 7 ?Gerard Manley Hopkins. Edited by The Kenyon C r i t i c s . New York: New Directions Book. 1945. pp. 115-134. Also printed i n The Common Pursuit London: Chatto and Windus, 1953. pp. 44-58. Lees, F. N. \"Gerard Manley Hopkins,\" Pelican Guide to English L i t e r a t u r e . VI. Edi t o r Boris Ford. London: Penguin Books. 1958. pp. 371-334. Lowell, Robert. \"Hopkins' Sanctity,\" Gerard Manley Hopkins. Edited by The Kenyon C r i t i c s . New York: New Directions Book. 1945. pp. 39-94. McLuhan, Herbert Marshall, \"The Analogical Mirrors.\" Gerard Manley Hopkins. Edited by The Kenyon C r i t i c s . New York: New Directions Book. 1945. pp. 15-28. - 118 -Miles, Josephine. \"The Sweet and Lovely Language.\" Gerard Manley Hopkins. Edited by The Kenyon C r i t i c s . New York: New Directions Book. 1945. pp. 55-72. Mizener, Arthur. \"Victorian Hopkins.\" Gerard Manley Hopkins. Edited by The Kenyon C r i t i c s . 1945. pp. 94-114. Murry, John Middleton. \"Gerard Manley Hopkins,\" Aspects of Li t e r a t u r e . London: W. C o l l i n s and Sons, 1920. pp.52-61. Reprint of \"Essay on Gerard Manley Hopkins\" Atheneum (June 6, 1919), 425. \" Pinto, V. de S. \"Hopkins and Bridges.\" C r i s i s i n English L i t e r a t u r e . London: Hutchison University Library. 1958. pp. 5 9 - 8 t f . Read, Herbert. \"Gerard Manley Hopkins.\" Collected Essays i n L i t e r a r y C r i t i c i s m . London: Faber and Faber. 1938. Reprinted 1950. pp. 331-353. Rosenthal, M. L. \"Hopkins, Hardy and the Relation of Art.\" The Modern Poets. New York: Oxford University Press. I960, pp. 20-27. Sargent, Daniel. \"Gerard Manley Hopkins.\" Four Independents. New York: Sheed and Ward. 1935. pp. 117-183. ~~ Thwaite, Anthony, \"Gerard Manley Hopkins,\" Contemporary English Poetry. London: Heineaann^. 1 9 5 9 . pp. 1 5 - 2 7 . Winters, Yvor. \"The Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins.\" Hudson Review. (Spring 1949). (Reprinted i n The Function of Criticism.)(Denver: Alan Swallow. 1957) 103-156. \"~ Warren, Austin. \"Gerard Manley Hopkins.\" Gerard Manley Hopkins. Edited by The Kenyon C r i t i c s . NewYork: New Directions Book. 1945. pp.1-15. ' \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 i . \"Instress of Inscape.\". Gerard Manley Hopkins. Edited by The Kenyon C r i t i c s . New Directions Book. 1945. pp. 72-88. - 119 -V. General References i n Books. Bateson, F.N.W. English Poetry and the English Language. Oxford: Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1934. pp. 117-118. Bullough, G. The Trend of Modern Poetry. London: O l i v e r and Boyd. 1934. pp. 23-25, 165-166. Deutsch, Babette. This Modern Poetry. London: Faber and Faber. 1936. pp. 183-198. Drew, Elizabeth. Directions i n Modern Poetry. New York: W. W. Norton and Co. 1940. pp. 82 f f . , 110, 158. Elton, O l i v e r . The English Muse. London: B e l l and Son. 1930. PP. 399-400. Empson, William. Seven Types of Ambiguity. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co. 1930. Heiney, Gerald F. Essentials of Contemporary L i t e r a t u r e . New York: Barron's Educational Series. 1954. p. 420. Lewis, C. Day. A Hope fo r Poetry. Oxford: Blackwell. 1934. pp. 2-12, 63-64. Schlauch, Margaret. The G i f t of Tongues. London: George A l l e n and Unwin. 1943. VI. General A r t i c l e s . Angus, Mrs. Anne Margaret (Anderson), \"Gerard Manley Hopkins,\" Canadian Poetry, III (June 1938), 9-14. Apple joy, Petronius, \"Hopkins sets a Poetic Signpost,\" Catholics World. XLI (May 1940), 184-90. - 120 -Auden, W.H. \"A Knight of the Infinite,\"New Republic, CXI (August 24, 1944), 223-24 (Review of Ruggles). i Bischoff, D. Anthony, Father, S.J. \"Hopkins,\" Jubilee. I l l , No. 1 (May 1955), 21-29. Blackmuir, R.P. \"Text and Texture,\" V i r g i n i a Quarterly Review. XIII (Summer 1937), 449-553. - ; \u00E2\u0080\u0094 Boyle, Robert. Hopkins' Imagery: \"The Thread of the Maze,\" Thought. XXXV No. 136 (Spring I960), 57-90. Bregy Katherine. \"Gerard Manley Hopkins: An Epitaph and Appreciation,\" Catholic World. LXXXVIII (January 1909), 403-447. Bremond, Andre. \"Art and Inspiration i n Hopkins,\" New Verse, XIV ( A p r i l 1935), 5-12. \u00E2\u0080\u0094 \" C h r i s t i a n Poet.\" Time, LXI (May 25, 1953), 106. Cohen, Selma Jeanne. \"The Poetic Theory of Gerard Manley Hopkins,\" P h i l o l o g i c a l Quarterly. XXVI (January 1947)-, 1-20. Coogan, Marjorie D. \"Inscape and Instress: Further Analogies with Scotus,\" Publications of.the Modern Language Association, LXVI (March 1950), 66-74. Conley, J . \"Hopkins Enshrined,\" Poetry. LXXIV (Aug. 1949), 292-300 (Review of Immortal Diamond). D'Arcy. Martin C. \"Gerard Manley Hopkins,\" The Month, CLXXXI (Feb. 1945), 67-69 (Review of Gardner I ) . Devlin, Christopher. \"Gerard Manley Hopkins,\" New Verse, XIV (1935), 12-15. . \"The Ignatian S p i r i t of Gerard Manley Hopkins,\" B l a c k f r i a r s . XIV, Oxford (Dec. 1935), 887-900. 121 -' . \"The Image and The, Word,\" The Month (Feb. and March 1950) .114-129 and 191-202.- ~\" \"Times Eunuich,\" The Month. New Series, I (1949), 303-12. ~~\" Downes, David A. \"The Hopkins Enigma,\" Thought. XXXVI No. 143 (Winter 1961), 573-594. Doyle, Louis F., S.J. \"In the Valley of the Shadow of Hopkins,\" Catholic World. CLXIX (April-September 1949), 102-108. Eberhart, Richard. \"Heavenly Mindedness,\" Poetry, LXII (September 1943), 347-56. (Review of Pick: P r i e s t and Poet). ~ : Fletcher, John Gould. \"Gerard Manley Hopkins\u00E2\u0080\u0094Priest or Poet?\" American Review, VI (Jan. 1935-Jan. 1936), 331-46. F u t r e l l , John C a r r o l l . \"Gerard Manley Hopkins and God fs Poem of Beauty,\" Catholic World. CLXXIV (February 1952), 352-358. : \"Gerard Manley Hopkins,\" Wilson B u l l e t i n , V (December 1930), 256-258. Gooden, George. \"Man and Nature i n Hopkins,\" Notes and Queries, CCIV (New Series VI. No. 11.) (December 1959>, 453-454. Gregory Horace. \"Living Poet, Deadly C r i t i c , \" Saturday Review of L i t e r a t u r e , XXVIII (March 24, 1945), 38-39. Grierson, G. \"Passionate Science,\" Times L i t e r a r y Supplement. No. 2772 (March 18, 1955), 16T7 G r i f f i t h , D. W. \"The Welsh Influence i n Hopkins' Poetry,\" New Verse. XIV (1935), 27-29. - 122 -Grigson, G. \"Blood or Bran,\"New Verse, XIV (1935), 21-24. Guiney, Louis I. \"Gerard Manley Hopkins: A Recovered Poet,\" The Month, CXXXIII (March 1919), 205-14. Guzie, Tad \u00C2\u00A5. \"Are Modern Poets Morbid?\" Catholic World, CLXXXV (April 1957), 2 7 - 3 2 . ~~~ ~ Heywood, Terence. \"Gerard Manley Hopkins: His Literary Ancestry,\" Poetry, LIV (1939), 209-18 and 271-79. __. \"Hopkins and Bridges on Trees,\" Poetry Review, XXIX (May-June 1938), 213-18. \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 \"On Approaching Hopkins' Poetry,\" Poetry Review, XXX (May 1939), 185-188. House, Humphry. \"Hopkins' Religious Life,\" New Verse XIV ( 1 9 3 5 ) , 3 - 5 . James, Stanley. \"The Sacrifice of Song,\" Catholic World, CXLI (June 1935), 2 9 0 - 2 9 5 . Jennings, E. \"Unity of Incarnation: A Study of Gerard Manley Hopkins,\"Dublin Review, CCXXXIV (Summer I 9 6 0 ) , 170-184. Keating, Joseph. \"Father Gerard Hopkins and the Spiritual Exercises,\" The Month, CLXVI (September 1 9 3 5 ) , 2 6 8 - 2 7 0 . . \"Impressions of Fr. Gerard Hopkins S. J.\", The Month, \"CXIV (July 1909) , 59-68. (August 1909), 151-lo\"0~ (September 1909), 246-258. -Kelly, Blanche. \"Immortal Diamond,\" Catholic World, CXLIV (January 1937), 481-482. (Review of The Immortal Diamond). - 123 : -Kunitz, S. J . \"Letters of Hopkins,\" Wilson B u l l e t i n . IX (May 1935), 491-492. : .. Lahey, G. F. \"Gerard Manley Hopkins,\" Commonweal XVIII (October 20, 1933), 581-584. _. \"Hopkins and Newman,\" Commonweal, XII (June 25, 1930), 211-213. Lappin, Henry A. \"Gerard Manley Hopkins and h i s Poetry,\" Catholic World. CIX (July 1919), 510-512. Lewis, C. Day. \"Records of a Great Poet,\" New Republic, LXXXIII (May 22, 1935), 52. .\u00E2\u0080\u00A2 [ L i l l y , Gweneth. \"Welsh Influences i n the Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins,\" Modern Language Review, XXXVIII (July 1943),. 192-205. McLuhan, M. \"Victorian Proto-Martyr of the Arts,\" Commonweal VIII (July 3, 1953), 324. MacNeice, Louis. \"A Comment,\" New Verse, XIV ( A p r i l 1935), 26-27. : Madge, Charles. \"What i s a l l t h i s Juice?\", New Verse, A p r i l 1935), 17-21. Mathison, John K. \"The Poetic' Theory of Gerard Manley Hookins,\" P h i l o l o g i c a l Quarterly. XXVI (June 1947),.21-35. Murry, John Middleton, \"The Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins,\" Athenaeum, (June 6, 1919), 425. 0'Gorman, N. \"Poet Revealed to his Friends,\" Commonweal, LXII . (July 22, 1955), 403-404. - \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 Owen, B. E. \"Gerard Manley Hopkins,\" Fortnightly Review, CLXVIII, , New Series, (July 1950), 38- 4 2 . (Review of early C r i t i c i s m ) . Pearson, N. H., \"Priest and Professional Poet,\" Saturday Review of Literature XXXII (September 17, 1949), 16. P h i l l i p s o n , Dom Wolstan. \"Hopkins Again,\" The Downside Review, LXXVIIL, No. 252 (Summer I960), 213-218. \"Poet's Poet: P o r t r a i t , \" Time, XLIV (August 14, 1944), 99-100. \"Preferences\" Canadian Forum. XI (October 30, 1930), 22-23. Read, Herbert. \"Poetry and B e l i e f i n Gerard Manley Hopkins,\" New Verse. No. I (January-April 1933), 11-15. Richards, I. A. \"Gerard Hopkins,\" The D i a l , LXXXI (September 1926), 195-203. ~~ Sale, W. M., J r . \"Gerard Manley Hopkins, Poet and Convert,\" Poetry, LXV (December 1944), 142-149. Sargent, Daniel. \"The Charm and the Strangeness,\" A t l a n t i c Monthly, No. 184 (August 1949-0, 73-80. -Shaw, J . G. \"Mr. Fletcher on Hopkins,\" Commonweal, XXV (November 13, 1936), 69-71. Simon, J. \u00C2\u00A5. \"Hopkins and his Sermons,\" Commonweal, XXVI (September 2 4 , 1937), 491-493. Speaight, Robert. \"Gerard Manley Hopkins, S. J . : His Genius and Stature as a Major Poet,\" Commonweal, XXXIII (1941) 562-565. Spencer, I. \"Poet i n Search of Inscape/' Saturday Review of Liter a t u r e , XXVII (Sept. 2, 1944), 20. Stanford, W. G. \"Gerard Manley Hopkins and Aeschylus,\" Studies, XXX (Sept. 1941), 359-68. - 125 -Symes, G. \"Hopkins, Herbert and Contemporary Modes,\" Hibbert (July 1949), 3^9-394. - ' Trueblood, C. K. \"Esthetics of Gerard Manley Hopkins,\" Poetry. L (Aug. 1937), 274-280. Wain, John. \"Gerard Manley Hopkins\u00E2\u0080\u0094An Idiom of Desperation,\" Proceedings of the British Academy. XLV (1959), 173-197. Walton, E. L. \"Portrait of a Poet,\" Nation. CXLI (July 2 4 , 1935), 109-111 (Review of The Correspondence of Gerard Manley Hopkins). VII Articles on Individual Poems. Ayres, R. W. \"Hopkins 'The Windhover,' a further simplification Modern Language Notes. LXXI (Dec. 1956), 577-584. Assad, Thomas J. \"A Closer look at Hopkins' '(Carrion Comfort)'. Tulane Studies in English. IX (1959)-91-102. Bliss, Geoffrey. \"In a Poet's Workshop: The Woodlark by Gerard Manley Hopkins,\" The Month, XLXVII No. 864 (June 1936), 528-535. : \"~~ \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 \"In a Poet's Workshop: On Hopkins' Unfinished Poem, 'The Woodlark',\" The Month. XLXVII, No. 864 (Jan. 1936), 528-535. Cohen, Selma Jeanne. \"Hopkins1 'As Kingfishers Catch Fire',\" Modern Language Quarterly, XI- (June 1950), 197-204. Downey, Harris. \"A Poem not Understood,\" Virginia Quarterly Review, II (Oct. 1935), 501-517. Durr, Roberta. \"Hopkins' 'No Worse, there is None',\" Explicator XI (1952), No. 11, Fussell, Paul, Jr. \"A Note on the Windhover,\" Modern Language Notes, LXIV (April 1949), 271. - 126 -Gibson, Wm. M. \"Hopkins' 'To R.B.\u00E2\u0080\u00A2,\" Explicator, VI (Nov. 1947), No. 12. Giovanni, Margaret. \"The Caged Skylark,\" Explicator. XIV (1955-56), No. 35. \" Gwynn, Frederick N. \"Hopkins' 'The Windhover' : A new Simpli-fication,\" Modern Language Notes. LXVI (June 1951), 366-70. H i l l , A. S. \"Analysis of the Windhover: An Experiment in structural method,\" Publications of Modern Language Association, LXX (Dec. 1955), 968-78. : Holloway, Sister. \"Sonnet 6 5 , \" Explicator. XIV (1955-1956), No. 8. Humiliata, Sister Mary. \"Hopkins and the Prometheus Myth,\" Publications of the Modern Language Association. CXX (March 1 9 5 5 ) , 5 8 - 6 8 . ~\" Morley, Christopher. \"The Wreck of the Deutschland,\" Saturday Review of Literature, XIV (Aug. 15, 1936), 12 (Review of W. H. Gardners' Essay). King, A. R. \"Hopkins' Windhover and Blake,\" English Studies. XXXVII (Dec. 1956), 245-52. Kliger, S. \"God's Plenitude in the Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins,\" Modern Language Notes. LIX (June 1944), 408. Pitchford, Lois W. \"The Curtal Sonnets of Gerard Manley Hopkins,\" Modern Language Notes. LXVIII (March 1952), 165-169. Rosenthal and Smith. \"God's Grandeur,\" Exploring Poetry, New York: Oxford University Press (I960), 94-98. Scheve, Brother Adelbert. \"Wreck of the Deutschland,\" Explicator, XVIII, No. 4 (Jan. 19<59)), No. 60. - 127 -Schneider, Elizabeth. \"Hopkins 'The Windhover',\" Explic a t or XVIII, No. 4 (Jan. i 9 6 0 ) , No. 22. . \"Hopkins* 'My Own Heart Let Me Have More P i t y On*,\" Explicator. V (May 1947), No. 51. . \"Two Metaphysical Images i n Hopkins: The Wreck of the Deutschland,\" Modern Language N 0 t e s , LXV (May 1950), 306-11. Schwartz, Delmaire. \"The Poetry of Hopkins,\" Nation, CLXII (March 23, 1936), 347-348. .: , ~~ Taylor, F. \"The Rebellious W i l l of Gerard Manley Hopkins,\" Poetry. LIX (Feb. 1942), 270-278. Teresa, S i s t e r Mary, S.N.B. \"Spelt from Sibyl's Leaves,\" Explicator, XLV ( A p r i l 1959) No. 4 5 . Thornton, F. B. \"Essay on Wreck of the Deutschland,\" Catholic World, CLX (Oct. 1944), 41-6. \"~ Ward, Dennis. \"Gerard Manley Hopkins,\"\"Spelt from Sibyl's Leaves,\" Month, VIII (July 1952), 40-51. Zabel, M. D. \"Gerard Manley Hopkins: 'Poetry as Experiment and Unity',\" Poetry. XXXVII (Dec. 1930), 152-160. VIII Miscellaneous C h u r c h i l l , Winston. A Roving Commission. New York: Scribner. 1940. May, J . Lewis. Cardinal Newman. Westminster, Maryland: The Newman Press, 1930. Merton, Thomas. Seeds of Contemplation. Norfolk, Connecticut: New Directions Book. 1949. - 128 -St. Rose, Sister Mary, S.N.D. \"St. John of the Cross: Doctor of Divine Love,\" Review for Religious. XVI. (1957), 193-210. . .. ~ * Silverio de Santa Teresa, P. Ascent of Mount Carmel. Translated and edited by E. Allison Peers. New Xork: Doubleday and Co. (Image Book), 1958. untermeyer, Louis. Modern British Poetry. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co. (Rev.) 1950. Lattey, C. The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, London: Herder. 1928. ~\" ' ' ~\" "@en . "Thesis/Dissertation"@en . "10.14288/1.0302299"@en . "eng"@en . "English"@en . "Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library"@en . "University of British Columbia"@en . "For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use."@en . "Graduate"@en . "Gerard Manley Hopkins' use of nature in his poetry"@en . "Text"@en . "http://hdl.handle.net/2429/39255"@en .