While I hope Gerard Manley Hopkins would at least humor my title pun, I am more confident he would enjoy this discussion I had with Dr. Thomas Dilworth about “The Windhover,” a stunning poem written by Hopkins in 1877, which was the same year he was ordained as a Jesuit priest. What begins with a pedestrian thinking he “caught” a Kestrel (Windhover) in flight one morning, turns out to be a theophanic encounter. This poem will catch you off guard with its beauty, depth, and joy for ordinary, dappled things. Dr. Dilworth points to the astonishing relationship between the falcon, the cross, the plow, and the person submerged in his suffering.
Be sure to listen to the end of the episode, where I attempt to recite the poem, with some guidance and encouragement from Dr. Dilworth.
The Windhover
by Gerard Manley Hopkins
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-vermilion.
Resources
In case you missed our previous biographical episode on Gerard Manley Hopkins, you can listen to it here:
Real Windhovers
Here is a short video of a dappled Windhover or Kestrel in flight:
And here is the video of the Kestrel family that I mentioned in the episode:
Dr. Thomas Dilworth
Dr. Thomas Dilworth is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a Killam Fellow. He specializes in Modern Literature and Romantic Poetry. Interdisciplinary in his interest in relationships between literature and visual art, he is the author of The Shape of Meaning in the Poetry of David Jones, which won the British Council Prize in the Humanities, Reading David Jones, and David Jones in the Great War and David Jones Engraver, Soldier, Painter, Poet¸an abridged version of which was read on BBC Radio 4.
Music
Throughout the episode, I included Caprice No. 24 in A minor by Paganini, which you can listen to in full here:
About Me
Last, but LEAST, here is a “commercial” for a series I have begun on the book of Romans, where I provide an original translation, exposition, and poem for each verse. Here is one of the posts:
God bless you,
Sam (Jack and Seth)
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