Flight as Form and Faith: Birds in Gerard Manley Hopkinss Sonnets

Abstract

Gerard Manley Hopkinss poems can be singled out by their inventive syntax, fast-paced rhythm and rhyme. While The Windhover and Gods Grandeur are just two of Hopkinss widely known sonnets that are studied for his originality and poetic skill, his poems connection with his spirituality has often been neglected. This paper aims to recon- sider the influence of the Tractarian Movement on Hopkins as he sought to illustrate, through the symbol of the bird, his desire to express his faith. In particular, his sonnets with bird imagery are assessed as a testament to Hopkinss desire not only to express poetic ambition but also profess his devotion to God. Rather than embrace the birds of the Romantic poets, such as Keatss nightingale or Shelleys skylark, he inherits John Kebles nightingales in First Sunday After Epiphany whose song is a direct praise to their Maker. Following the Tractarian poetics of reserve and analogy, Hopkins utilizes the bird and its flight to visual-ize spiritual faith. In Let Me Be to Thee and The Sea and the Skylark, the bird represents a symbol of an ideal believer who understands the purpose and inscape of worship—to achieve unity with God—and yearns to ascend. Other poems, like The Windhover and Gods Grandeur, portray the bird as a member of the Trinity, which the speaker observes and praises. Lastly, in The Caged Skylark, the bird is a representation of Faith embodied, as the speaker makes an analogy of the bird in its cage with the spirit within the physical body. By illustrating the lows of faith, the speaker acknowledges the fears of mortality and physical decay even for the faithful. Despite this desolate state of both bird and spirit, the speaker hints at the attainment of salvation and the return to a new Eden. The concurrent physical descent and spiritual ascent captured by this poem reveal the ironies that faith sometimes requires of believers: passively waiting for Gods will while actively obey-ing and worshipping him. By utilizing the bird and its flight, Hopkinss sonnets confess to his love and worship of God and depict his desire for ascension.