A man, as the introduction reads, whose "quest to find proof of God's work in nature" made his writings very Victorian in theme (773). And we can see this in several, if not all of his selections in the anthology. "The Windhover" is addressed to Christ our Lord in which he describes something from nature, a Falcon, in a beautiful fashion, making the falcon out to be an almost heavenly and divine creature talking of its achievements and mastery of flight (775). There are several other poems we see in which he refers to God or Jesus or writes the poem to or for either of them including "God's Grandeur," "The Windhover," "Pied Beauty," "Felix Randal," "As Kingfishers Catch Fire," and several others.
What is the significance of him being sure that people understood that God can be found in nature? According to his apparent beliefs, and considering the times, and that Hopkins was the most Victorian and the most modern of the Victorian writers, there is an important need to emphasize the simpler things in life, as opposed to the importance of hierarchies, and structure, and Industrialism that was taking place during the Victorian Age.
We especially see the purpose of his writings in "Pied Beauty." In the first stanza, he gives thanks for the multitude of beautiful and colorful things in our word that God has given us. The second stanza is saying that everything, no matter how traditional or strange, is made by Him. "With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;/ He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:/ Praise him" (776). What does it mean for beauty to be past change? God created us all as we are meant to be, rejoice in that and praise Him for it.
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Jalisa,
ReplyDeleteGood start for a post, by the time you finally get around to discussing a specific poem in your final paragraph. You immediately end the post, though, before you have had a chance to go into much depth. Perhaps the impending deadline prevented you from going into more detail here.
I think it is interesting that God's beauty is "past change," when the beauty of the world is only beautiful because of all of its change. Perhaps beauty that changes is all that we can comprehend or really even see--that's why Hopkins sees that dappled things are so beautiful, because their colors change. But God's beauty, which is often described as incomprehensible, is a beauty that is not just unchanging, but "past change": above change, too beautiful to change. Given the above lines, Hopkins does not really understand this sort of beauty, but he knows enough to praise it unconditionally.
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