Trace the religious elements in Hopkins’s poetry. 

Answer

Trace the religious elements in Hopkins’s poetry. 

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889) was a deeply religious poet and a Jesuit priest. His religious feelings are present in almost all his poems. We find God’s glory, the beauty of creation, and human suffering in his poems. His poems show how something beautiful in nature can make us think about God. Let us trace out the religious elements in Hopkins’s poetry.

God in Nature: Hopkins believed that nature is a mirror of God’s glory. In “Pied Beauty” (written in 1877), he praises God for the variety and colours in nature. He begins the poem with:

“Glory be to God for dappled things —”

He praises God for creating the sky with mixed colours, spotted cows, and the dots on swimming trout (a kind of fish). He also praises the red-brown fallen chestnuts and the beautiful wings of finches. He sees beauty in farmlands. He even praises the tools and clothes used in different trades. Hopkins shows that both good and bad, bright and dark, are part of God’s beautiful creation. “Swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim” are all God’s creation. For Hopkins, even small and ordinary things in nature are signs of God’s presence.

The Windhover: In “The Windhover” (1887), Hopkins sees a falcon flying in the sky. He describes the falcon’s beauty and power as it flies. It is riding the wind. It dives, glides, and turns beautifully in the air. The poet depicts it as the morning’s favorite and the prince of daylight.

…Morning’s minion, king-

dom of daylight’s dauphin…”

Hopkins sees the majesty of God’s creation in the beauty of the bird. In this poem, Hopkins shows how something beautiful in nature can make us think about God.

Suffering and God’s Mercy: Hopkins also writes about suffering and God’s mercy. In “Felix Randal” (written in 1880), he writes about a blacksmith, Felix, who becomes