“The Windhover.” How to Deconstruct Gerard Manley Hopkins’ Poem. The Poem as Epiphany. 19thC.

The Windhover is, even for Hopkins, an extraordinary and breathtaking display of wordplay, rhythm, imagery, and extended metaphor. The density of the figurative language is, at times, almost overwhelming–intenionally, since being overcome, staggered is a major thematic element of the poem; the tone is appropriately ecstatic, given the tenor of the content. As a result, it doesn’t rely on simple declarative sentences, but more on fervid, enraptured expressions. The poem will be more successful for you if you approach it with that in mind. And though it is wrought with religious undertones, it can be perceived as a paradigm for any epiphanic ¹experience.

I wrestled with the use of footnotes, but felt that clarity superseded pause.

Hopkins was a priest and the Christ/windover ²symbolism is central to the poem’s intent, as is evident in the sub-title, To Christ our Lord.

The poem is in Hopkin’s favorite sonnet form, Petrarchan/Italian³, with a rhyme scheme of abbaabba in the octet⁴, and cdcdcd in the sestet⁵. The meter is Sprung Rhythm⁶. which, by including a fixed number of stressed syllables but varied number of unstressed syllables per line allows Hopkins to emulate the cadence of natural speech.

I caught begins the poem, and it subtley and intentionally introduces both the bird imagery and the forceful theme, though caught here refers to the use as in caught in the corner of my eye.

morning suggests beginnings, births/rebirths, emphasized by the word-repetition and the alliteration of the m’s and n’s, leading to minion, or favorite (as also, dauphin, prince), introducing the metaphor that extends throughout the poem, windhover:Christ (Prince of Peace).

The cadence of the second and third lines is a breathless, stunning emulation of flight, beginning with the alliterative d’s creating an up-and-down movement, followed by sprung rhythm suggesting the flapping of wings (this, of course, is my own interpretation):

(The length of explanation it has taken for three lines is indicative of the density of figurative language mentioned above.)

The intensity of flight is heightened by the “long i” assonance of striding/High.

how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing. The windhover glides in upward circles (rung: to form a circle), as if his rippled (wimpling) wing is a rein⁷, guiding him. In his ecstasy! Hopkins often referred to thisness, the individuating essence of something, i.e., what makes it what it is and nothing else, and inscape, the internal pattern or form of a thing. Here the flight of the windhover individualizes it to the degree of ecstasy, perhaps a subliminal reference to the ecstasy achieved by Christ’s touch upon our hearts.

then off, off forth on swing,/As a skate’s heel sweeps smooth on a bow-Bend. The windhover shifts (swing) his flight into an arc, similar to a skater’s formation of a curve (bow-Bend), in preparation of a dive: the hurling force of which is so powerful, it rebuffs (turns back) the air. The achieve of–the realization of its “thisness”– its mastery, ignites (stirred for a bird) Hopkins’ heart, which had been dormant (hiding), just as Christ’s glory can create an epiphany in our hearts.

The next two stanzas illuminate the Christ reference, with Hopkins directly addessing Christ (thee). The first line of the sestet capitulates the “thisness” of the Windhover, culminating in the heavily associative word, Buckle!, emphasized by the plosive ⁸ “B”; its position as the first word in the line; and the exclamation point. The word is layered with meaning: to prepare one’s armor (chevalier⁹); to collapse; to join. The union of the windhover and its prey at the moment of impact is likened to an implosion, with fire radiating (breaks) as a result, only the shift to Christ means that the effect on one’s heart of His glory is  a billion Times told lovelier, more dangerous– epiphanic and ecstatic.

The final stanza can be seen as obliquely referring to Christ’s Sacred Heart, as well as to our hearts after they have been ‘buckled” by His glory. The heart’s transfiguration is a result of persistent dedication (sheer plod), which results in transformation, as a plough blade is polished to a shine by its contant friction with upturned soil (sillion). And in release (sacrifice implied with fall, gall, and gash?), as embers shed their outer ashes as they fall to the hearth, revealing a gold-vermillion core: Christ’s Sacred Heart, our now sacred heart. Epiphany.

Be sure to read the poem again after this discussion.

Click below for my recording of The Windhover.

1.  a sudden, profound realization, insight, or manifestation of the essential nature or meaning of something, that transforms understanding. It’s characterized by moments of deep clarity, intuitive grasp, or startling awareness, like a flash of inspiration that changes one’s perspective.  ↩︎
2. a small falcon that hovers with rapidly beating wings while searching for prey on the ground, the source of the kestrel’s colloquial name of ‘windhover’. ↩︎
3. a poem of fourteen lines, consisting of an eight line stanza and a six-line stanza ↩︎
4. a stanza of eight lines ↩︎
5. a stanza of six lines ↩︎
6. a meter that counts stressed syllables per line (around five in this sonnet) but varies the unstressed syllables ↩︎
7. a long narrow strap ↩︎
8. denoting a consonant that is produced by stopping the airflow using the lips, teeth, or , palate, followed by a sudden release of air. ↩︎
9. knight ↩︎

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