English Literature, Victorian Epoch: Gerald Manley Hopkings "The Windhoover"

	Gerald Manley Hopkins is an exceptional figure, I am fairly sure, without him, the Victorian Epoch couldn't be completed, in the United Kingdom, in Great Britain, In England he is a second National Writer after William Blake.
	To Christ our Lord I CAUGHT this morning morning’s minion, king-   dom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding   Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,           As a skate’s heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding   Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding Stirred for a bird,—the achieve of; the mastery of the thing! Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here   Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion          Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!   No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,   Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.
	His social background is very crucial, he will always be associated with London, Stafford in Essex. Surprisingly or not, he converted himself into Catholicism, it became the most significant factor that changed his ways of perceptions and writing for good. He was very young, 22, though. He was very much, indeed, attracted by transubstantiation, which was not present in Anglican Church, as we know, Henry VIII broke away with Catholic church, established his own Church, Anglican Church. He loved north Wales, where nothing, absolutely nothing happened, but what was important, he was surrounded with beauty. In 1875 He burned all his poems and spent time on contemplation, reflection on God, and didn't write any poems until the catastrophe of the German ship "Deutschland", nine nurses died off the shore of England. He decided to describe that tragedy in the poem of 35 stanzas. In "Windhoover" not only he describes the greatness of the falcon, which hoovers above in the sky, he describes the Christ. His imagination was immense, he is a harbinger of XX century, in his poems we clash with in-stress and in-space. In-stress describes the inner energy ..."freshness of deep down things..." In-space or In-scope means "escape" , the outline is a sketch of ones character, all depends on each other. It is how Hopkins described the falcon, he gives it outline, a sketch, a character, He saw it at 4:47 in the morning, while he was walking, "Windhoover" is a literary  name of a falcon, a hawk.  As he wrote "...I caught...", is emphasized by anacrusis, he simply heard what he wanted to write. I saw may as well mean Eye saw. Both ways of perceptions. Falcon with grace rebuffed the wind, wimpled into it, there's no limits for it... "... As a skate’s heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding   Rebuffed the big wind..."  The poem is entitled "To Christ Our Lord",  he praises God, he looked up at the sky, he looked at bird but He didn't see him as an zoological object, looked up at the sky and saw the cross, passion and grace of it sake.
	"...Brute beauty and valor and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here   Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then..." It is a reflection to Medieval Times, the Knight who was part of romantic stories.  The bird symbolizes Chivalry.  "AND" however points a very important moment in Christianity, the moment of the passion of the Christ. There is end of the poem. The bird doesn't belong to anyone, its origins are Earth and Nature.   Symbolism in this poem makes it alive, flame symbolizes the way the Christ suffered for redemption of humanity, gold is a color of the church, the color of power, lust, therefore it stands for sin.