A Stylistic Study of "The Windhover" by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Abstract

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) is the greatest religious poet and Jesuit priest of the Victorian age who was born in London in the rapidly changing time, fundamentals, visions and sights. He wrote many poems such as “The Windhover”, “The Wreck of the Deutschland”, “God’s Grandeur”, “Spelt from Sibyl’s Leaves”, “I Wake and feel the fell of dark, not day”, “Carrion Comfort”, “Pied Beauty”, “Felix Randal”, “Binsey Poplars” and “Thou art indeed just, Lord” but none of them was published in his life. when he decided to become a Jesuit, he burned all his literary works as he felt that they were against the principles of his Catholic religion. His friend, Robert Bridge kept a copy of his poems and published them in 1918. As a Jesuit priest, Hopkins infused his personal religious devotion into his poetry. The Windhover reflects his intense spiritual connection. For him The Windhover is “the best thing I ever wrote”. The Windhover is not the love poem which is addressed to any person, (even though “To Christ our Lord”), but to the life itself. The Windhover is the masterpiece of Hopkins style, imagery, in which he fuses the beauty of nature with the divine and religious believes. In order to reach his goal, Hopkins used figures of speech, sprung rhythm and different forms of sound patterning. This study is a stylistic analysis of The Windhover from the graphological, phonological, lexical, structural and semantic points of view. The Windhover stands out for its innovative style, vivid imagery, and seamless integration of nature and faith, a combination that distinguishes it from other religious poems. Keywords: Gerard Manley Hopkins, Victorian poet, The Windhover, Stylistic Study.