The Windhover

"kingdom of daylight's dauphin"

What strikes me most about this poem is the importance of "morning." The repetitive use of the word in the line "I caught this morning morning's minion," then the follow up of "daylight's dauphin" imply that this time of day serves a particular significance. This period of the rising of the sun, and essentially, the birth of the day, symbolizes the dawn of a new life and way of thinking that Hopkins undergoes. The discovery of the windhover, its elegance and royalty that so deeply resonates with him, has changed his viewpoint, and he is looking out onto a new day. Soon after I realized this, I looked back at the poem and saw in tiny letters a phrase I had missed - the dedication "To Christ our Lord." This leads me to believe that Hopkins has made a religious, but more importantly, spiritual connection with the falcon. The process may symbolize an epiphany that Hopkins experienced that led to his renewed self. It is very likely that the falcon symbolizes Christ himself, which is supported by Hopkins' descriptions of royalty through the words "kingdom", "dauphin", and "valour."

It was also very interesting to note, like Sonali mentioned, Hopkins' use of alliteration. In combination with descriptions of the "rolling level" and "wimpling wing" (which translates to rippling), "swing", "sweeps smooth" and "gliding" create a very rolling, smooth sensation, as if of flight. The repetitive letters of "morning morning's minion" and "daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn" and "wimpling wing" simply roll off the tongue. This technique, of creating a sensation of being airborne, of rolling off airwaves and feeling the wind beneath one's wings evokes a visceral connection to the Falcon which Hopkins himself experienced.

The "blue-bleak embers" of the last stanza evokes a feeling of closure, of death. However, this is directly contrasted with the phrase "Buckle! And the fire that breaks from thee then" which paints a picture of vitality, and life. However, Hopkins writes that the embers "Fall, gall themselves, and gas gold-vermilion." This reminded me immediately of Alice's tumble through the rabbit hole!

"Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermilion."

The blue-bleak embers, devoid of the fierce, rich color of life and fire, represent death and fading away. However, the fact that they have the gall and audacity to fall, and burst open into a cascade of "gold-vermilion" (what I interpret as fire) they are renewed with life and vitality. In the same way, Alice, before she had the bold nerve to venture down the rabbit hole, and fall through the earth, was enjoying a pleasant, if easily forgettable afternoon, a day that would fade away into the recesses of her memory.  However, as soon as she descended through that fateful tunnel and fell through the earth, her life took a radical change. She came to a land positively brimming with life and color. Her life is about to gash gold-vermilion. In her childish view, she exclaims to herself, "After such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling downstairs!" (13) She has already understood on a very basic level that this experience will change her attitude towards the mundaness of the quotidian.

This all ties back in to HOpkins' expression of renewal. Like Sonali, I think his use of "Buckle" is in a sense an exclamation of connection. It connects together his experience with the frustration of being a "blue-black ember" and then experiencing a rebirth through his spiritual connection to the Windhover, and in essence, to God. He has, I think, been reborn.