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radiantfractureSomeone in my used and patterned Penguin of Gerard Manley Hopkins (a selection of his poems and prose curated by one W.H. Gardner) -- patterned like a salmon-pink abstract eye (a good era for Penguins) -- has underlined in "The Windhover" the words falcon and buckle. I don't know why, except that they have a beautiful clattering alliteration, if more than half a poem apart.
Also, softly pencilled and circled beside the word sillion: earth.
They have also made some notes in "Carrion Comfort": "despair is a kind of comfort -- this need to wrestle with it" (personal communication, p.60, n.d.)
Other penmarks highlight the final, devotional, triad of lines (rather than the first three flashy ones) of "As Kingfishers Catch Fire"; flag in "Henry Purcell", the phrase "it is the forgéd feature finds me"; an indeterminate mark of attention or inattention accompanies "Duns Scotus' Oxford" (40); and on p. 35 mark just the word "rose" -- noun or verb? Is the ambiguity intentional? Oh, it's "The Wreck of the Deutschland" so yes, rose would fold in on itself, or out, rose into risen.
That has kairos just now, the moral excavation of a wreck.
"Rose" took me to Eliot, but he felt too dry after Hopkins.
* * * * * *
Re-reading "The Windhover" now, I hear how Hopkins' control of sound, which amounted of course to an obsession, truly is unearthly (pun intended) -- that falcon and buckle are among only a handful of hard K sounds in the whole poem: I caught, king-/dom, Falcon, ecstasy, skate's heel, act, Buckle, breaks, makes -- more midrhymes -- blue-bleak -- the rest has that rolling, flowing, blowing wind-current sound -- it's almost magic how he does it, almost incantation, though he would call it hymn, dedicated it to Christ our Lord.
And on top of all that the thing's a bloody sonnet. (Though with those wildly over-riding lines, that willful excess of magnificence.)
We'd better have it here:
The Windhover
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.
Also, softly pencilled and circled beside the word sillion: earth.
They have also made some notes in "Carrion Comfort": "despair is a kind of comfort -- this need to wrestle with it" (personal communication, p.60, n.d.)
Other penmarks highlight the final, devotional, triad of lines (rather than the first three flashy ones) of "As Kingfishers Catch Fire"; flag in "Henry Purcell", the phrase "it is the forgéd feature finds me"; an indeterminate mark of attention or inattention accompanies "Duns Scotus' Oxford" (40); and on p. 35 mark just the word "rose" -- noun or verb? Is the ambiguity intentional? Oh, it's "The Wreck of the Deutschland" so yes, rose would fold in on itself, or out, rose into risen.
That has kairos just now, the moral excavation of a wreck.
"Rose" took me to Eliot, but he felt too dry after Hopkins.
* * * * * *
Re-reading "The Windhover" now, I hear how Hopkins' control of sound, which amounted of course to an obsession, truly is unearthly (pun intended) -- that falcon and buckle are among only a handful of hard K sounds in the whole poem: I caught, king-/dom, Falcon, ecstasy, skate's heel, act, Buckle, breaks, makes -- more midrhymes -- blue-bleak -- the rest has that rolling, flowing, blowing wind-current sound -- it's almost magic how he does it, almost incantation, though he would call it hymn, dedicated it to Christ our Lord.
And on top of all that the thing's a bloody sonnet. (Though with those wildly over-riding lines, that willful excess of magnificence.)
We'd better have it here:
The Windhover
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.
no subject
Date: 2023-06-26 09:04 am (UTC)Those last three lines are pure genius!
no subject
Date: 2023-06-26 11:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-06-26 02:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-06-26 03:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-06-26 03:24 pm (UTC)Yes! I must thank the earlier owner for their underlining, or else I would not have been puzzling over what might connect falcon and buckle and I would not have paid such close attention to the specifics of the poem.
I have loved Hopkins' sounds and tricky rhythms since adolescence, but I clearly ought to test my ear and eye further.
Lol
I hadn't thought about Spenser! What did you glean about his sounds?
Great blossom-blotted penguin.
no subject
Date: 2023-06-26 04:34 pm (UTC)Spenser paid a LOT of attention to the progression of vowel sounds within a line, trying to keep them from making large jumps within the mouth, as well as pleasing patterns of consonants -- also within a line. He rarely (especially in the first three books of FQ) carried those sounds over onto the next line. By virtue of echoing within a line the sounds of a rhyme word, some sounds might later reappear, but not in any consistent way I could fathom -- it seemed very ad hoc.
Spenser was really, REALLY line-focused, which is weird for a narrative poet. The first three books of FQ, feminine rhymes (I wish there was a better term of art for that 😠) are very rare, after which they slowly get more ... not common, but no longer unusual. It took him to book six to start doing any sort of enjambment -- when I stumbled on one, I was surprised enough I stared at the page for a minute, trying to figure out what was so different about the lines. But I've strayed well past the bounds of the question.
no subject
Date: 2023-06-26 03:29 pm (UTC)Damn! Thought I had a book of Hopkins' poems. Apparently I don't have one now. But yeah -- I'd forgotten just how amazing this poem is.
no subject
Date: 2023-06-26 03:32 pm (UTC)I don't think I really saw its greatness until just then when I decided to wonder about the underlines.
no subject
Date: 2023-06-26 04:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-06-26 10:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-06-27 06:53 am (UTC)