The Windhover, by Gerard Manley Hopkins is a poem about the essence of natural things.
Poetry
The Windhover, by Gerard Manley Hopkins is a poem about the essence of natural things. This poem describes the relationship of human beings to the natural world as the poet is addressing God through the bird. It is praising him for all the marvellous things He has created and that humans can enjoy.
The poem consists in three verses. In the first verse, the poet describes the power of the bird as it is portrayed as the master of heavens. This verse captures the movement of the bird in the sky. It starts with “I caught this morning mornings minion” that gives the feeling that the bird is a servant of the sky and it is the morning because it is a good time for hunting. Hopkins puts words together like “dapple dawn-drawn” to portray multi-images as here where the bird is drawn in the sky. Also, the alliteration here produces the effect of the bird’s movement in the air and the intensity of the poem’s feeling. The author writes that the bird is “striding high there” and this produces the image that the bird is taking huge steps in the air. The bird also “rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing” showing his power and control with “ecstasy”. The bird has control over the wind. The rhythm in this verse is very slow, yet steady. This verse consists in very long sentences that convey the effect that the bird is circling the air; with long movements it also reflects the poets feelings. This verse gives as the feeling that he poet has searched very well the words to describe his feelings but at the same time describing the bird. He searches for words that sound as they are written for example “sweeps smooth”.
