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The Concept Of The 'Mystical Body Of Christ' In Selected Poems By Gerard Manley Hopkins

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The Concept Of The 'Mystical Body Of Christ' In Selected Poems By Gerard Manley Hopkins

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Content This dissertation has bsan
microfilmed exactly as received 67*2107
FRANZ, Louis Joseph, 1931-
THE CONCEPT OF THE "MYSTICAL BODY OF
CHRIST" IN SELECTED POEMS BY GERARD MANLEY
HOPKINS.
University of Southern California, Ph.D., 1966
Language and Literature, modern
University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan
THE CONCEPT OF THE "MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST"
IN SELECTED POEMS BY GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS
by
Louis Joseph Franz
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(English)
June 1966
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
T H E GRADUATE SC H O O L
U N IV ER SITY PARK
L O S A N G E LE S. C A L IFO R N IA 8 0 0 0 7
This dissertation, written by
.• ..........
under the direction of h.&M..Dissertation Com
mittee, and approved by all its members, has
been presented to and accepted by the Graduate
School, in partial fulfillment of requirements
for the degree of
D O C T O R OF P H I L O S O P H Y
Dean
Date.....7 h * % t-
DISSERTATION COM M ITTEE
^ / I ^ c y f i i
-i ■ » —» o .
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
INTRODUCTION ......................................... 1
1. Explanation of Terms ........................ 5
2. The Concept of the "Mystical Body of
Christ" in Hopkins' Prose ................. 23
CHAPTER
I. "BARNFLOOR AND WINEPRESS".................. 56
II. "HURRAHING IN HARVEST"....................... 77
III. "AS KINGFISHERS CATCH FIRE, DRAGONFLIES
DRAW F L A M E " ................................. 10 3
IV. "ST. ALPHONSUS RODRIGUEZ".................. 120
V. "THE CAGED SKYLARK"......................... 146
VI. "ROSA MYSTICA"............................... 168
VII. "GOD'S GRANDEUR" ............................. 197
CONCLUSION............................................ 232
BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................... 245
INTRODUCTION
Studies of influence in the poems of Gerard Manley
Hopkins have often stressed either his Ignatian spirit^ or
his Scotian philosophical ideas2 as strong formative ele
ments. The influences of Ignatius and Scotus exist in
Hopkins' poetry. It is my intention in this dissertation
to show that an original^ and controlling concept, the
concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ," working within
the framework of the Ignatian and Scotian influences and
arising from them, is present in Hopkins' poetry and when
1Two important works on the Ignatian influence are
John Pick's Gerard Manley Hopkins, Priest and Poet (London,
1942) and David A. Downes' Gerard Manley Hopkins: A Study
of His Ignatian Spirit (New York, 1959).
2Christopher Devlin's "The Image and the Word," The
Month, January-June, 1950, pp. 114-127, 191-202, and
Appendix ii to The Sermons and Devotional Writings of
Gerard Manley Hopkins (New York, 1959) are significant
treatments of the Scotian influence. The Scotian influence
on Hopkins is also notably treated in Alan Heuser's The
Shaping Vision of Gerard Manley Hopkins (New York, 1958).
^The word "original" is used here to indicate a new
emphasis given to the concept of the "Mystical Body of
Christ" by Hopkins. At the time Hopkins wrote this concept
was known but not emphasized in Catholic theology as I will
indicate later in this study.
1
2
understood gives his work an added dimension.
Before he read the works of Scotus and St. Ignatius
Hopkins held ideas similar to theirs. Hopkins read Scotus
for the first time in July of 1872. His earlier ideas on
inscape had been formed before he had read Scotus and he
seems at this time to have found only a responsive cord in
the works of the famous philosopher, thus giving his
earlier ideas some external authority and confirming him
in his long-held ideas on inscape. Professor Pick tells
us:
When he opened the pages of a philosopher who
justified this feeling [about inscape], the young
man was exultant. In 1872 he enthusiastically put
in his Journal:
After the examinations we went for our holi
day to Douglas in the Isle of Man Aug. 3. At
this time I had first begun to get hold of the
copy of Scotus on the Sentences in the Baddely
library and was flush with a new stroke of
enthusiasm. It may come to nothing or it may
be a mercy from God. But just then when I took
in any inscape of the sky or sea I thought of
Scotus.
It was not that he found something he had not
known. He did not become a disciple of Scotus in
the sense that a student adopts the teachings of a
master; rather, both of them had the same experi
ence of "form" as sharply individual and particular.
His reading of the mediaeval Franciscan tended to
make him feel that he was correct and that there was
3 !
a philosophical justification for his own analysis
of beauty.^
Further, some of Hopkins' early prose and poetry have much
in common with the spirit of Ignatius. David Downes indi
cates why he believes these early writings of pre-Jesuit
days may legitimately be included in those pervaded by the
Ignatian spirit when he states:
Some of the religious attitudes he held as a Jesuit,
and expressed in his poems of the Jesuit period, he
held and wrote of as an Anglican. His conversion
was the turning point in his life, and no doubt it
was a profound change; but the movement toward that
conversion can be seen in his early notebooks and
his early poems.5
"Barnfloor and Winepress," written in 1865, is a good
example of such an early work, appearing in print as it
did a year before Hopkins' conversion to Catholicism in
October of 1866 and three years before his entrance into the
Society of Jesus in 1868.
It may be that just as Hopkins' ideas on inscape early
in life were later confirmed by his study of Scotus'
^Pick, p. 35. Other authors who concur with John
Pick are W. A. M. Peters, Gerard Manley Hopkins: A
Critical Essay toward the Understanding of His Poetry
(London, 1948), p. 24, and Marjorie D. Coogan, "Inscape
and Instress: Further Analogies with Scotus," PMLA,
65:66-74.
" ’Downes, p. 11.
ideas on haecceitas, so his own insights and ideas on one
great inscape that would include all creation found con
firmation and articulation in the concept of the "Mystical
Body of Christ" even later in his life. In other words,
just as the Scotian ideas on individuation served as a
framework, a ready-made one, to which Hopkins related his
own ideas formed earlier, so the concept of the "Mystical
Body of Christ" served as a framework to which he related
his earlier and independently formed ideas, especially as
these were expressed in the poems published before 1881,
when reference to the concept and the very term "Mystical
Body of Christ" first appear in his prose work.
We may suppose, perhaps, that the spiritual diary and
other writings of Hopkins which were destroyed or have
been lost® might have shown a development of the concept of
the "Mystical Body of Christ" which, without the diary, can
be seen only sporadically in his prose but much more fre
quently, I believe, in his poetry.
®Hopkins, Further Letters of Gerard Manley Hopkins,
ed. Claude Colleer Abbott (New York, 1956), p. xxi.
Hereafter this book is referred to as "Hopkins, Further
Letters."
1. Explanation of Terms
Before an attempt is made to define the concept of
the "Mystical Body of Christ" and to indicate its principal
aspects for this study, some attempt must be made to indi
cate the meaning of the terms "selected poems" and "symbol"
in the title of this dissertation.
The poems selected for discussion in this study, in
the order of their analysis and interpretation, are
"Barnfloor and Winepress" (1865), "Hurrahing in Harvest"
(1877), "As Kingfishers Catch Fire, Dragonflies Draw
Flame" (1881), "St. Alphonsus Rodriguez" (1888), "The
Caged Skylark" (1877), "Rosa Mystica" (187?), and "God's
Grandeur" (1877). The dating used is that given by Robert
Bridges in William Henry Gardner's third edition of
Hopkins' poems,^ although strict chronology is not of prime
importance in this study. This study is one of a concept
which cuts across the boundaries of time. Although the
poems selected represent both the early period (1860-1874)
and the later period (1875-1889) in Hopkins' poetry, the
main concern of this work is to understand the concept of
^ Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins, 3rd ed. (New York,
1948), pp. 212-252. This book is referred to hereafter as
"Hopkins, Poems."
the "Mystical Body of Christ" as it manifests itself in
Hopkins' poetry, and no attempt is made to indicate that
this concept was consistently or consciously developed by
Hopkins. The order in which the poems are analyzed is
determined by the relation of the poems to the various
aspects under which the concept of the "Mystical Body of
Christ" is treated, namely, external nature, man, the
Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Holy Ghost.
There are three reasons why these particular poems
were chosen. First, it is hoped that a study of all the
poems chosen for this work, and especially "Barnfloor and
Winepress" and "Rosa Mystica," will clarify the meaning of
each poem as it is shown to set forth the concept of the
"Mystical Body of Christ." Further, and importantly, the
study of these poems will complement the work of Sister
Adroita Hart** and Father Robert Boyle.^ The former has
traced the concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ" in
"The Wreck of the Deutschland," and the latter has traced ,
8,,The Christocentric Theme in Gerard Manley Hopkins'
'The Wreck of the Deutschland,'" Catholic University of
America (Washington, 1952), unpublished doctoral disserta
tion.
^Metaphor in Hopkins (Chapel Hill, North Carolina,
1960).
the same concept in the more important mature poems of
Hopkins' later period. Secondly, the poems chosen are
works not only of Hopkins' early period (1860-1874) but
also of his mature period (1875-1889) and so suggest his
continuing interest in the concept of the "Mystical Body of
Christ." Finally, the poems selected show influences of
the concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ" in the four
aspects under which it is considered in this dissertation,
aspects which I will treat later.
The term "symbol" is used in this study first to indi
cate a concrete object or specific aspect which functions
in the poem itself and at the same time refers to another
object or aspect. It is in this sense that Rene Wellek and
Austin Warren define a symbol as "an object which refers to
another object but which demands attention also in its own
right, as a presentation."I® This definition as applied to
my study means that the mention of the name "Christ" would
have a specific meaning in a particular poem but over and
above that would suggest the idea of the "Mystical Body of
Christ" and its various aspects, and thus give a fuller
meaning to the name of Christ. Secondly, the term "symbol"
^ Theory of Literature (New York, 1956), p. 178.
is used in the sense of an idea or concept, namely, the
concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ," which recurs and
persists in the whole body of Hopkins' poetry. And in this
sense "symbol" is a better word than "metaphor," the term
which Father Boyle uses to describe the "Mystical Body of
Christ" in his book, Metaphor in Hopkins.33 Wellek and
Warren suggest the superiority of the term "symbol" over
the term "metaphor" when they state:
Is there any important sense in which "symbol"
differs from "image" and "metaphor"? Primarily,
we think, in the recurrence and persistence of the
"symbol." An "image" may be invoked once as a
metaphor, but if it persistently recurs, both as a
presentation and representation, it becomes a sym
bol, may even become part of a symbolic (or mythic)
system.12
The terra "symbol" is used in this sense in the phrase of
Rosemond Tuve, as "the extreme of metaphor,"13 that is,
metaphor carried to its ultimate conclusion.
Finally, the term "symbol" as used in this disserta
tion has the suggestion of the word "symbol" when that word
is used in Catholic theology in relation to a sacrament
11p. xii.
l2Theory of Literature, p. 178.
13A Reading of George Herbert (Chicago, 1952), p. 202.
which is an outward sign or symbol of inner significance.
So, for example, in the sacrament of Baptism the pouring
of the water over the infant's head is an outward, visible
sign of internal, invisible washing away of the stain of
original sin. In other words, the term "symbol" when used
in connection with the concept of the "Mystical Body of
Christ" indicates a deep spiritual significance and meaning
that the simple mention of Christ does not automatically
convey and that the term "symbol" does not usually suggest
in literature.
Having indicated the senses in which the terms
"selected poems" and "symbol" are used in this study, I
turn now to a definition of the term "Mystical Body of
Christ" and an indication of the various aspects of this
concept that will be treated in this work.
In Catholic theology Christ is the central person of
all time, whether in Old Testament foreshadowing or New
Testament physical and mystical presence. He was promised
in the Old Testament (Genesis 3:15) with the words, "I will
put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed
and her seed." The seed of "the woman" is interpreted as
referring to Christ. Christ existed as foreshadowed
throughout the Old Testament, had physical life for
10
thirty-three years as described in the gospels, and at His
death began a mystical or mysterious existence as partially
explained by St. John in his gospel and more fully explained
by St. Paul in his epistles. As Fernand Prat, an eminent
Pauline scholar, says in his book, Theology of St. Paul:
The Mystery par excellence is the design conceived
by God from all eternity, but revealed only in the
Gospel, to save all men without distinction of race,
identifying them with his well-beloved Son in the
unity of the mystical body. This idea is now so
familiar to us that we can hardly conceive how it
could have been the most characteristic feature of
St. Paul's teaching, even to the point of being
called his Gospel.14
In a real sense, then, it can be said that Christ spans
history as foreshadowed in the Old Testament, physically
present in the gospels and mystically present in the
Pauline epistles of the New Testament. As the physical
Christ contained by fulfillment the Old Testament fore
shadowings of Him,15 so the mystical Christ contains the
14(London, 1942), I, 308.
l5In Matthew's gospel there is frequent mention made of
the fact that Christ fulfilled in His physical life the
many foreshadowings which the Old Testament contained of
Him. Cf. Matt. 13:34-35; 21:4-5; 26:30-31; 27:9-11; 27:34-
35. In each text cited an action or event in the life of
Christ is shown to be the fulfillment of an Old Testament
foreshadowing about the Messiah, Christ. As we shall see
in "Barnfloor and Winepress" the Eucharist, the Body and
Blood of Christ, is foreshadowed in the Old Testament
(II Kings 6:27).
11
foreshadowed and physical phases of His life by bringing
them to fulfillment in the Church He founded. The various
phases of Christ's existence are mentioned here merely as
a basis for understanding the richness of the term "Mystical
Body of Christ," a term which is of primary concern in this
study.
What is the "Mystical Body of Christ"? According to
the Pauline epistles it is the Church which Christ founded.
This can be seen from an examination of Christ's question
to Paul, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" (Acts 9:4)
In this question there is implied an identification of
Christ with His Church, for Saul was persecuting not the
physical Christ, Who was dead, but the mystical Christ as
He lived in His newly founded Church in mystery— in a
mysterious manner. The word "mystery" as it is used here
is explained by Hopkins in a letter of October 24, 1883, to
Robert Bridges when Hopkins says:
But by the way you say something I want to remark
on: "Even such a doctrine as the Incarnation may be
believed by people like myself", as a mystery, till
it is formulated, but as soon as it is it seems
dragged down to the world of pros and cons, and 1 as
its mystery goes, so does its hold on their minds'.
[Italics mine] You do not mean by mystery what a
catholic does. You mean an interesting uncertainty:
the uncertainty ceasing interest ceases also. This
happens in some things; to you in religion. But a
catholic by mystery means an incomprehensible
12
certainty: without formulation there is no interest
(of course a doctrine is valuable for other things
than its interest, its interestingness, but I am
speaking of that now)? the clearer the formulation
the greater the interest. At bottom the source of
interest is the same in both cases, in your mind and
in ours; it is the unknown, the reserve of truth
beyond what the mind reaches and still feels to be
behind. But the interest a Catholic feels is, if I
may say so, a far finer kind than yours.16
The manner, then, in which Christ lives in His Church is
mysterious to the Catholic as an "incomprehensible cer
tainty." It is never fully understood but is, nevertheless,
an important part of reality, a certainty.
The meaning of the word "body" in the term "Mystical
Body of Christ" is derived from St. Paul's epistles and the
explanation of it is the next step here.
St. Paul likens the Church to a body composed of head
and members and extending in a mysterious way the life of
Christ. Christ is the head of the body, and the persons
in His Church, who have been incorporated by Baptism,are
its various members. St. Paul, without ever actually
using the term "Mystical Body," states the doctrine in
general thus:
l^Hopkins, Letters of Gerard Manley Hopkins to Robert
Bridges, ed. Claude Colleer Abbott (New York, 1955),
p. 187. This book is hereafter referred to as "Hopkins,
Letters to Bridges."
13
12 For as the body is one, and hath many members,
and all the members of that one body, being many,
are one body: so also is* Christ. 13 For by one
Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether
we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free;
and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
14 For the body is not one member, but many. . . .
26 And whether one member suffer, all the members
suffer with it; or one member be honored, all the
members rejoice with it. 27 Now ye are the body of
Christ. (I Corinthians 12:12-27)17
First, Christ is to be considered the head of the
body. He is the head of the "Mystical Body" by reason of
natural and priestly pre-eminence. Christ is the head of
the natural aspect of the body because He is the new Adam,
replacing Adam, the first head of the human race, in whom
humanity, along with the plant and animal life subservient
to it, fell. It is clear that in Adam all men fell from
their original favor with God and that in Christ, the new
Adam, all men were redeemed and returned to favor with God.
It is not so clear, however, but must be understood, that in
l^This scriptural quotation and all those used throughout
this dissertation are taken from The Holy Bible, King James
Version, The Westminster Study Edition (Philadelphia, 1948).
The Douay version of the scripture will be used only where
it is obvious that Hopkins used it or where it will throw
light on a particular scriptural allusion. There are two
reasons why the King James Version is used as the primary
source of scriptural quotations: first, because it is the
more generally accepted text in literary circles and,
second, because it was the version of scripture which
Hopkins used during his early, impressionable years.
14
Adam all life fell in one act, and that all life subse
quently was redeemed in one act as St. Paul states in
Romans 8:19-23,18 where he re-enforces the ideas expressed
in Genesis 3:17-19.19 Treating this important point in his
book, The Meaning of Man, Jean Mouroux says:
Nature and man make up this whole we call the uni
verse. Man sinned and fell, and nature was also
affected and fell in turn. Genesis marks this fact
(Genesis 3:17-19), and underlines the sullen hostil
ity of nature to man in his fallen state. St. Paul
insists on the slavery to which man's sin has
reduced the creature: it becomes subject to 'vanity,'
that is to say to irrational misuse, 'to emptiness
and futility'; it is even delivered over to the
1 8
"For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth
for the manifestation of the sons of God. 20 For the
creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by
reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope;
21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from
the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the
children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation
groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the
firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within
ourselves, waiting the adoption, to wit, the redemption of
our body."
18,,And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened
unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of
which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it:
cursed is^ the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou
eat of it all the days of thy life; 18 Thorns also and
thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat
the herb of the field: 19 In the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out
of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust
thou shalt return."
15
'servitude of corruption,' that is, to the sinful
and criminal enterprises of man.20
Christ's redemptive action won back for nature and man a
state of union with God, but with some qualifications.
According to Mouroux:
The Redemption is realized as yet only in principle,
in germ, and in expectation; here below it is in the
state of first-fruits, an adumbration and a foretaste.
Nothing is definite, nothing fulfilled, nothing car
nal or material in particular is truly transfigured,
and in the creation, as in the baptized man, good
and evil are still at grips. But we hear the new
call that goes up from the world, the call for deliv
erance, the daily appeal for redemption, the longing
in the heart of things for the final transformation
when man at last shall be fully filial, liberated
and glorious, and the world, now cleared of its
shadows, shall be nothing more than an instrument of
praise and benediction in the hands of the sons of
God.21
By Christ's great sacrifice, then, all life (plant,
animal, and human) was restored; and Christ, therefore, is
the first-fruits of the redeemed fallen race. Summing up
St. Paul's teaching as contained in Romans 5:12-21,
Fernand Prat says:
As Adam was able to destroy us, so Christ will be
able to save us. If Adam, by his sin, made us
sinners, how much more will Christ, by His justice,
be able to make us just. From one end of the
passage to the other the single cause is contrasted
20(New York, 1948), p. 22.
21Meaning of Man, p. 23.
16
with the multiple effects. For example: Verse 18.
One man only transgresses. . . . All men are con
demned. One author of justice. . . . All men are
justified.
Verse 19. One man only disobeys. . . . The many
are made sinners. One man22 only obeys. . . . The
many are made just.2^ [Based on Romans 5:12-14; 18-
19] 24
Christ, then, the God-man, was the first to share in
the redemption by which He bought back all creation from
the power of sin. This is His first title of claim to be
the Head of the "Mystical Body."
Further, as priest, Christ is the mediator between
God and man, reconciling the fallen human race to God the
220ne need not wonder that Christ is here called "man."
Hopkins had written, Letters to Bridges, p. 188, "To the
Catholic it is: Christ is in every sense God and in every
sense man, and the interest is in the locked and insepar
able combination."
^ Theology of St. Paul, I, 439.
2^"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world,
and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for
that all have sinned: 13 (For until the law sin was in the
world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.)
14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even
over them that had not sinned after the similitude of
Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was
to come. . . . Therefore, as by the offense of one judgment
came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteous
ness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justifica
tion of life. 19 For as by one man's disobedience many
were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be
made righteous." (Romans 5:12-14; 18-19).
17
Father and so asserting another claim to be Head of the
"Mystical Body." This reconciliation was effected through
the bloody sacrifice on Calvary, where Christ was man,
priest, and victim. Hopkins calls this the "Great Sacri
fice.” At the Last Supper, which looked forward to this
bloody offering and, in its renewal, the Sacrifice of the
Mass, the same sacrifice is offered but in an unbloody
manner under the appearance of bread and wine. In the
Mass, Christ is the principal offerer; the priest is His
instrument who speaks the words of consecration. These
words of consecration change the bread, made up of many
crushed grains of wheat, and the wine, made up of many
crushed grapes, into the Body and Blood of Christ. The
Sacrifice of the Mass, therefore, is a visible expression
of many individual members of the "Mystical Body of Christ"
united in the Body and Blood of Christ. As St. Paul says:
The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the
communion of the blood of Christ? The bread we
break, is it not the communion of the body of
Christ? 17 For we being many are one bread, and
one body: for we are all partakers of that one
bread. (I Corinthians 10:16-17)
So far I have pointed out that, according to the doc
trine and the explanation of St. Paul and Fernand Prat, the
"Mystical Body of Christ" is the Church He founded and
18
that Christ is the head of this body by reason of natural
and priestly pre-eminence.
Turning next to a consideration of the members of the
"Mystical Body of Christ," I wish to explain that it is
through Baptism that one becomes a member of this body,
that the body is made up of a multiplicity of members, all
joined in one body to Christ, the head, by reason of the
titles already mentioned. There is, therefore, the closest
relation between head and members, the relation of the same
life which is supplied by the Holy Ghost, its soul.^5 one
remains free to become a member of this body or not but
once incorporated^ he lives the life of the whole body,
"For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the
members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also
is Christ. 12 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into
25"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear
fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can
ye, except ye abide in me. 5 I am the vine, ye are the
branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same
bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do
nothing." (John 15:4-5) In this passage John speaks of the
shared life between Christ and His members under the figure
of a vine and its branches.
26rrhe "incorporation" of a member in the "Mystical Body
of Christ" must be like Christ's own taking of a human life
in the "incarnation" which required of Christ a great sacri
fice of humility but one which He gladly made. So each mem
ber of the "Mystical Body of Christ" must give up his sinful
self to share fully in Christ's wider, mystical life.
19 ■
one body." (I Corinthians 12:12-13} This baptism is a spir
itual death to sin and resurrection to life in Christ, a
destruction of the old life of sin and an endowment with a
new life of grace. Relying on St. Paul once again we read:
Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are
risen with him through the faith of the operation
of God, who hath raised him from the dead. 13 And
you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision
of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him,
having forgiven you all trespasses; 14 Blotting out
the handwriting of ordinances that was against us,
which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way,
nailing it to his cross. (Colossians 2:12-14)
[Italics mine]
The idea of this passage is clearly that as a result of
this united action with Christ the actions of the members
of the "Mystical Body of Christ" take on a value that is
not for them alone but also for Christ.
Four aspects of reality are related to the "Mystical
Body of Christ." The first is external nature. By
"external nature" I mean the mineral state as well as
plant life, and non-human animal life. In its relation
to the "Mystical Body of Christ" external nature fell in
Adam, the first man and the head of the human race. This
is so because man, as represented by Adam, is the crown
of creation and so contains implicitly the lower forms
of minerals as well as plant life, and non-human animal
20
l i f e . when, therefore, the whole human race fell in
Adam, external nature as implicit in Adam also fell and,
consequently, was in need of redemption. By His "Great
Sacrifice" on Calvary Christ redeemed man and so implicitly
external nature as well. But, unlike man, external nature
has no free will and so is incapable of refusing to cooper
ate completely with the effects of that redemption. Of
itself external nature, as a result of the redemptive
action of Christ, will always praise God, that is, acknowl
edge Him as its creator and redeemer merely by following
the laws of its nature: the rose by blooming, the bird by
singing, or, as Hopkins would have said, by fulfilling its
vital selfhood or individuality and so remaining a poten
tial instrument of God's praises in the hands of men.
However, because man remains the crown of creation
even after the redemption and because he does have a free
will which may choose either good or evil, man may use
external nature properly as an instrument for praising God,
or abuse it by turning it to his own evil ends. If man
abuses external nature he turns external nature and himself
^^Hopkins saw man as the crown of creation and so
spoke of him in "Ribblesdale":
And what is Earth's eye, tongue, or heart else,
where Else, but in dear and dogged man?
21
away from incorporation with Christ? if, on the other hand,
he uses external nature properly he fulfills his own self
hood and also the selfhood of external nature by incorporat
ing both in Christ.
Further, by reason of his incorporation in Christ's
"Mystical Body" man is capable of elevating not only
external nature with which he comes into contact but also
his own daily work to a supernatural level. And he can
share all his actions, those that are joyful and those
that are sorrowful, with his fellow members of the "Mysti
cal Body of Christ" and can in turn share theirs. So his
work, his joy, his sorrow find their fullest expression in
union with the other members of the "Mystical Body" and
with Christ, its Head.
One particular member of the human race must receive
special consideration in this discussion of man's relation
to the "Mystical Body of Christ," and that member is the
Blessed Virgin Mary, the new Eve, the mother of Christ.
In the quotation of Genesis 3:15, "I will put enmity
between thee [the serpent as a symbol of the devil] and
the woman, and between thy seed and her seed," "the
woman" referred to is generally accepted in Catholic
theology as the Blessed Virgin Mary, and "her seed" is
generally accepted as referring to Christ, to Whom she gave
birth. So in the very first mention or foreshadowing of
the Redeemer, Mary is associated with Him. Just as Eve,
the first woman, brought death to the human race through
her temptation of Adam, so Mary, the new Eve, brought a new
life to the human race by giving physical life to Christ,
the new Adam. As the Christ foretold in Genesis is to be
the Redeemer, and as the redemption, literally a buying
back of the human race from sin, was to be effected through
Christ's sacrifice on Calvary, then Mary, as the mother of
the Redeemer, is to have a major part in the redemption
itself. Christ won the grace of redemption for the human
race? but it is Mary who will be the channel through which
this grace is distributed to redeemed man; thus she will
give a spiritual life and in a real sense merit for herself
the title of mother, or new Eve. If the Church is the
"Mystical Body of Christ" with Christ as its head, and all
its members are parts of that body, then the Blessed Virgin,
by reason of her unique position in the "Mystical Body of
Christ," can be considered the mother of the members of the
"Mystical Body of Christ."
Developing further the figure of the Church as a body
with head and members we find the Holy Ghost as the body's
soul. Just as the natural body must have a vivifying
principle, the soul, so must the supernatural body, the
"Mystical Body of Christ," and that soul is the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost is the vital principle not only of redeemed
man but also even of external nature, in which Christ con
tinues the work of redemption in all creation. In man the
Holy Ghost is the Comforter, the one Who urges man on, as
the word "Paraclete" suggests and as Hopkins himself stated
in a sermon which will be discussed later. In external
nature the Holy Ghost is the conserver continuing the work
of Christ's redemption in the universe. The life which
the Holy Ghost gives man is the life of grace; and the
exact nature of this life of grace, which conforms man
to Christ, will be discussed later on in more detail in
Hopkins ' own words.
2. The Concept of the "Mystical Body
of Christ" in Hopkins' Prose
Before an attempt is made to show, in the main part
of this study, how the concept of the "Mystical Body of
Christ" acts as a symbol in selected poems of Gerard
Manley Hopkins, it will be worthwhile and illuminating to
see how the concept finds its way into the prose works of
24
Hopkins: his sermons, miscellaneous spiritual writings, and
letters.
Christ was central to Hopkins' thinking from at least
1865 to the end of his life. As early as January 22, 1866,
Hopkins wrote to his friend E. H. Coleridge:
I think that the trivialness of life is, and person
ally to each one, ought to be seen to be, done away
with by the Incarnation— or, I shd. say the difficul
ty wh. the trivialness of life presents ought to be.
It is one adorable point of incredible condescension
of the Incarnation (the greatness of which no saint
can have ever hoped to realise) that our Lord sub
mitted not only to the pains of life, the fasting,
scourging, crucifixion etc. or the insults, as the
mocking, blindfolding, spitting etc. but also to the
mean and trivial accidents of humanity. It leads one
naturally to rhetorical antithesis to think for
instance that after making the world He shd content
to be taught carpentering, and, being the eternal
Reason, to be catechised in the theology of the Rab
bins. It seems therefore that if the Incarnation cd.
versari inter trivial men and trivial things it is
not surprising that our reception or non-reception
of its benefits shd. be also amidst trivialities.28
Although the relationship of things to Christ was far from
a dominating factor in his life, yet Hopkins was beginning
to see things in relation to Christ, and it seems that as
he developed his spiritual life he began to seek an all-
embracing inscape, or all-inclusive design or pattern, in
which he could see all things in themselves and in terms of
28Hopkins, Further Letters, pp. 19-20.
25
a clearer unity. Hopkins seems to have found this inscape
in the concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ." In accord
with the pattern of this concept he could see external
nature, man, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Holy Ghost,
indeed, all aspects of Catholicism and the universe in a
unified manner. Christ seemed to give a "positive pitch
and direction" to everything and for all time, past, pres
ent, and future. In his notes on "Creation and Redemption,
the Great Sacrifice," written during the long retreat of
November, 1881, Hopkins wrote:
Time has 3 dimensions and one positive pitch and
direction. It is therefore not so much like any
river or any sea as like the Sea of Galilee, which
has the Jordan running through it and giving a cur
rent to the whole.29
Commenting on this idea, which is also found in the sixth
stanza of "The Wreck of the Deutschland," in the words,
"But it rides time like riding a river. . .," Devlin says,
"On this precedent, the 'positive pitch and direction'
would be the evolution through many ups and downs of God's
plan in history, a plan which may be said to be the incor
poration of the universe into the Mystical Body of Christ.
The '3 dimensions' would presumably be past, present and
^^Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 196.
26
future."30
The above reference indicates that Hopkins was think
ing in terms of the "Mystical Body of Christ," and this
view is corroborated by a sermon delivered just seven
months before the above was written. This sermon contains
the clearest exposition that Hopkins gives us of the con
cept of the "Mystical Body of Christ" in his prose works.
The conclusion of this sermon of May 15, 1881, is certainly
one of the cardinal passages for any study of the concept
of the "Mystical Body of Christ" in Hopkins' writings. It
is puzzling, therefore, that Father Boyle neglects even to
mention the sermon of May 15, 1881, in his work. The con
cluding section of Hopkins' sermon of May 15, 1881, it
should be noted, is the expansion of a bare idea with which
Hopkins had ended a sermon on April 25, 1880, preached also
at Liverpool, on the text of John 16:5-14.3^ In the
3®Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 306,
note 196.
31
"And now I am going to him who sent me, and no one of
you asks me, 'Where art thou going?' But because I have
spoken to you these things, sorrow has filled your heart.
But I speak the truth to you; it is expedient for you that
I depart. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come
to you; but if I go I will send him to you. And when he
has come he will convict the world of sin, and of justice,
and of judgment; of sin, because they do not believe in me;
of justice, because I go to the Father, and you will see me
27
concluding paragraph of this earlier sermon Hopkins had
said:
And now brethren, time fails me. Else I should
shew you how the Holy Ghost has followed and will
follow up this first beginning, convincing and con
verting nation after nation and age after age till
the whole earth is hereafter to be covered, if only
for a time, still to be covered with the knowledge
of the Lord, I should shew too his manner of convinc
ing the world, the thousand thousand tongues he
speaks by and his countless ways of working, drawing
much more than I have drawn from my mysterious text,
but I must forebear: yet by silence and by speech to
him be glory who with the Father and the Son lives
and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.32
This sermon of April 25, 1880, followed a series of four
sermons preached on succeeding Sundays from January 4, 1880,
to January 25, 1880, in which Hopkins developed an account
of the various aspects of the "Kingdom of God": first, the
phase in the Garden of Eden; then, the phase of Christ's
public life and the establishment of the Church; and,
finally, the phase of Christ's return in triumph to Heaven
31(continued) no more; and of judgment, because the
prince of this world has already been judged.
"Many things yet I have to say to you, but you cannot
bear them now. But when he, the Spirit of truth, has come,
he will teach you all the truth. For he will not speak on
his own authority, but whatever he will hear he will speak,
and the things that are to come he will declare to you."
(John 16:5-14) [Italicized words were emphasized by
Hopkins.] This quotation is from the Douay Version of the
Scripture.
32Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 75.
28 :
with the elect. Although God the Father and God the Holy
Ghost play their parts in effecting these various phases of
the "Kingdom of God," it is Christ Who receives throughout
the main emphasis, an indication, perhaps, that Hopkins was
working toward the concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ"
as an inscape or pattern that would unify all the multiple
aspects of Christianity for him.
The insight which Hopkins had about the role of the
Holy Ghost in the "Mystical Body of Christ" in the sermon
of April 25, 1880, was expanded almost a year later in a
sermon of May 15, 1881:
And in this gospel, brethren, we read what is
the work the Holy Ghost has come to do: it is to
glorify God the Son. Christ came into this world
to glorify God the Father; the Holy Ghost came to
glorify Christ. Christ made God known by appearing
in human shape, the Word took flesh and dwelt amongst
us; the Holy Ghost makes Christ known by living in
his Church, he makes his temples in Christian hearts
and dwells within us. Christ glorified the Father by
his death and resurrection, the Holy Ghost glorifies
Christ by the persecution and the triumphs of the
Catholic Church. Christ was himself but one and
lived and died but once; but the Holy Ghost makes
every Christian another Christ, an AfterChrist; lives
a million lives in every age; is the courage of the
martyrs, the wisdom of the doctors, the purity of the
virgins; is breathed into each at Baptism, may be
quenched by sin in one soul, but then is kindled in
another; passes like a restless breath from heart to
heart and is the spirit and the life of all the
Church: what the soul is to the human body that, St.
Austin says, the Holy Ghost is to the Catholic Church,
Christ's body mystical. If the Holy Ghost is our
29
spirit and our life, if he is our universal soul,
no wonder, my brethren, no wonder he is our Para
clete, to lead us and to life us and to fire us to
all holiness and good, a Paraclete in a way too that
Christ alone could never be. On this great mystery
no time is left to dwell: I leave it for your thoughts
to ponder. In the name of the Father etc.33 [italics
mine]
In a note to the words "the Catholic Church, Christ's body
mystical," Father Devlin remarks in admiration, "In this
wonderful sermon, GMH's theological insight was ahead of
his time— as he so often was— in his devotion to the Church
as the Mystical Body of Christ."34 Here, then, seems a
clear reference to the concept of the "Mystical Body of
Christ" in the prose work of Hopkins. Coming as it does
after the series of sermons on the "Kingdom of God" in its
various phases, and after a summary, almost cryptic, treat
ment of the same idea a year earlier, the statement seems
justified that the main idea of this sermon was not merely
a passing one for Hopkins but was a cardinal idea which he
developed as time went on. This statement seems further
justified by the fact that in the long retreat of 1881
which followed soon after this sermon of May 15, 1881,
Hopkins wrote the words I have quoted above: "Time has 3
J-'Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 100.
34nopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 281.
30
dimensions and one positive pitch and direction, etc."
(Cf. p. 25 above) It would seem, therefore, that this idea
of the "Mystical Body of Christ" was an important one for
Hopkins. Hopkins did not take the time to elaborate further
upon this profound idea; but, as so often happened, he had
to cut his sermon short for lack of time. Returning to
this same idea, however, in a letter to Robert Bridges of
February 10, 1888, Hopkins, in interpreting his poem "Tom's
Garland," says:
Must I interpret it? It means then that, as St.
Paul . . . says, the commonwealth or well ordered
human society is like one man; a body with many mem
bers and each its function; some higher, some lower,
but all honourable, from the honour which belongs to
the whole.33
Commenting correctly on this poem, although making no refer
ence to Hopkins' interpretation to Bridges, John Pick
remarks, "'Tom's Garland* (1887), that difficult and
cryptic sonnet, is an admirable poetic statement of the
Catholic view of the relation of the individual to the
state; implicit in it is the doctrine of the Mystical
Body.1,36
It is perhaps worth noting in connection with the
33Hopkins, Letters to Bridges, p. 27 2.
33Pick, p. 151.
31 !
basic head-members idea in the concept of the "Mystical
Body of Christ" and before going on to discuss its various
aspects as these are seen in Hopkins' prose work, that
Hopkins had been interested in the Pauline epistles, and
specifically in the first epistle to the Corinthians,
where the concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ" is
presented, as early as his undergraduate days at Oxford.
In a letter to his mother on May 4, 1863, he relates:
Then Gurney and several others went to Liddon1s
lecture (one of a series on the first epistle to
the Corinthians) delivered at S. Edmund's Hall.
Gurney took me. The lecture, I need scarcely say,
was admirable. Liddon perhaps you do not know, is
Pusey's great protege— and is immensely thought
of. . . . Gurney introduced me (to Liddon), and I
shall go every Sunday e v e n i n g . 37
This interest in the first epistle to the Corinthians
and the concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ" which it
contained influenced Hopkins' thinking; and it is obvious,
as will now be shown, that he understood that Christ was
the head of the "Mystical Body" by reason of natural and
priestly pre-eminence. Hopkins understood, first, that
Christ was the head of the natural aspect of the "Mystical
Body" because Christ was the new Adam, replacing the fallen
Adam, the head of the human race, in whom humanity, along
0 7
'Hopkins, Further Letters, pp. 76-77.
.................... 32 1
with the plant and animal life subservient to it, fell. In
a sermon of January 18, 1880, Hopkins said, "And next week
we shall have leisure to consider the fall of God's first
kingdom and commonwealth, the famous and fatal Fall of Man,
in all our history the greatest event after that which came
after it and undid it, the crucifixion and man's redemp
tion."^® Hopkins realized that all creation, not only man,
fell in the Garden of Eden; for in his spiritual writings
during the long retreat of November, 1881, he stated:
Invidia autem diaboli mors intravit in mundum: God
gave things a forward and perpetual motion; the
Devil, that is/ thrower of things off the track,
upsetter, mischiefmaker, clashing one thing with
another brought in the law of decay and consumption
in inanimate nature, death in the vegetable and ani
mal world, moral death and original sin in the world
of man.39
The idea that this fallen external nature needed redemption
and received it in Christ's great sacrifice on Calvary is
clearly implicit in a letter of September, 1883, where
Hopkins speaks of external nature as incapable of evil in
itself, an evil which after the redemption arises solely
from the will of man:
^®Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 62.
^Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, pp. 198-
199.
33
But why do we find beautiful evil? Not by any break
of nature, nature is incapable of producing beautiful
evil. The explanation is to be sought outside nature;
it is old, simple, and the undeniable fact. It comes
from the wicked will, freedom of choice, abusing the
beauty, the good of its nature.40
Further, the relation of external nature and man, as sug
gested in the commentary on Romans 8:19-23 above, caused
Hopkins to quote that passage, Romans 8:19-23, in connec
tion with his poem, "Ribblesdale" (1882). W. H. Gardner
remarks of this poem:
"Ribblesdale" (1882) was inspired by the Pauline text,
[footnote: In Mss. 'A* and 'D' Hopkins quotes Romans
viii, 19, 20, "cum praecc. and seqq."]. . . . Man is,
indeed, the heir of God (as St. Paul says), but a
perverted heir—
"To his own selfbent so bound, so tied to his turn,
To thriftless reave both our rich round world bare
and none reck of world after. ..."
Whatever of earth's beauty survives man's depredation
makes a strong plea to God to deliver His creature
from "the bondage of corruption."41
It is clear to Hopkins, then, that Christ redeemed man and
external nature, both of which had fallen in Adam, but
whereas external nature had responded, man, the "selfbent"
creature, too often did not. Christ was the first-fruits
40Hopkins, Further Letters, p. 307.
4^-Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) : A Study of Poetic
Idiosyncrasy in Relation to Poetic Tradition, 2nd ed.,
2 vols. (London, 1944), I, 160.
34
of the redemption, that is, the choicest first portion of
the harvest to be offered to God in recognition of His good
ness. Hopkins used this term "first-fruits" in his poetry
as applied to Christ suggesting the vine-branches idea of
John 15:4-6, but he referred to it in his prose writings as
well. Richard Watson Dixon, a poet with whom Hopkins
carried on a lengthy correspondence, had asked if he might
publish one stanza of the poem "Morning Midday and Evening
Sacrifice" in an anthology. To the poem Dixon appended the
text, "As for the oblation of the first-fruits, ye shall
offer them unto the Lord. Leviticus 2:12." Hopkins in
approving the first stanza alone for publication replied:
I think there would be no objection to my lines
appearing in the Birthday Book, especially anony
mously (as I should wish), but I ought to get a
formal leave and will. However, I should tell you
that the poem in question is in three stanzas: did
you know that? Nevertheless the first, the one you
quote might stand by itself. If so the text should
be something about first-fruits: there must be
several that would do, but I think of none just
now.4 2
In addition to acknowledging that Christ was the head
of the "Mystical Body" by natural right as just discussed,
Hopkins acknowledged, as one of his main ideas, that Christ
42nopkins, The Correspondence of Gerard Manley Hopkins
and Richard Watson Dixon, ed. Claude Colleer Abbott (London,
1955), p. 132.
35
was the head of the "Mystical Body" by priestly pre
eminence, that is, by reason of his great priestly act of
sacrifice on the cross, a sacrifice foreshadowed by the
Last Supper and perpetuated by the Sacrifice of the Mass.
As Hopkins said in a sermon of September 14, 1879:
This is a great matter, the Holy Mass, much a higher
matter than that appletree which ruined Adam and
Eve and all of us, and disobedience in it is a sin,
grievous, mortal, and damnable. The Word of God,
second person of the divine Trinity, our blessed
Lord Jesus Christ, came down from everlasting heaven,
was made man, lived among men, was given into the
hands of sinners, first by his own hands into Judas'
in the Last Supper, then by Judas into those of the
priests, then by the priests into those of Pilate,
then by Pilate into those of the executioners, and
accomplished his bloody sacrifice on the cross. He
died, he rose again, he ascended into heaven. But
his sacrifice goes on to every year, every week,
every day, because every day Mass is offered.43
Besides having clearly in mind the relation of Christ
to the "Mystical Body" as its head by natural and priestly
pre-eminence, Hopkins was fully aware that every baptized
member of the Church was also a member of the "Mystical
Body." In his sermon of May 15, 1881, he told his hearers:
Christ was himself one and lived and died but once;
but the Holy Ghost makes every Christian another
Christ, an AfterChrist; lives a million lives in
every age, is the courage of the martyrs, the wisdom
of the doctors, the purity of the virgins? is breathed
into each at Baptism, may be quenched by sin in one
^^Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 236.
36
soul, but then is kindled in another.^
Every baptized Christian, Hopkins indicates, is a member of
the "Mystical Body of Christ," and every one in his dis
tinctive selfhood contributes to the building up of the
body which is Christ. In the doctor, or preacher, in the
Church it is Christ Who preaches, in the martyr it is
Christ Who suffers, in the virgin it is Christ Who is pure.
It is also clear in this passage that it is by baptism that
one is incorporated into the "Mystical Body of Christ," the
symbolic death to sin that brings supernatural life when
the one baptized rises from the water. The supernatural
life given in Baptism is the life of grace. "Grace" is a
term which Hopkins explained and related to the concept of
the "Mystical Body of Christ" when he wrote as follows in
an article "On Personality, Grace and Free Will":
For grace is any action, activity, on God's part by
which, in creating or after creating, he carries the
creature towards the end of its being, which is its
selfsacrifice to God and its salvation. It is, I
say, any such activity on God's part; so that so far
as this action or activity is God's it is divine
stress, holy spirit, and, as all is done through
Christ, Christ's spirit; so far as it is action, cor
respondence , on the creature's it is actio salutaris;
so far as it is looked at in esse quieto it is Christ
in his member on the one side, his member in Christ
on the other. It is as if a man said: That is
^Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 100.
37
Christ playing at me and me playing at Christ, only
that it is no play but truth; That is Christ being
me and me being Christ.^5
A clearer statement of identification with Christ through
grace on the part of a member of the "Mystical Body of
Christ" could hardly be found. One who shares the life of
Christ in the "Mystical Body of Christ" really, truly, and
literally is Christ, and his actions take on an inestimable
worth.
Thus far it has been shown how the basic idea of the
"Mystical Body of Christ" is manifested in the prose writ
ings of Gerard Manley Hopkins. The next step in this
exposition is to indicate what Hopkins says of the four
aspects of the "Mystical Body of Christ" in their relation
to the basic head-with-other-members concept.
External nature, with its plant and animal life, as
well as the other elements such as sky and water, was
important to Hopkins his whole life long, but in differing
ways at various times. From May, 1866, when he first
began keeping his Journal, to its final entry for February,
1875, observations of external nature play a prominent part.
But early in the Journal, for the first three or four years,
^^Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 154.
38
his interest seems to be more simply in the inscape of the
object itself, whether chestnut or sunset, than in any
underlying significance the object might have. So in an
entry for May 14, 1866, he writes:
Chestnuts in bloom. The blooms are, as one feels,
not straight but the tips bent inwards: then being
thrown in some cases forwards, a good deal out of the
upright, the curved type is easily seen in multipli
city which in one might be unnoticed. A brown tulip
is a noble flower, the curves and close folding of
the petals delightful. Anthers thick furry black.
Young copper beech leaves seen against the sky pale
brown with rosy blush along the ribs of each leaf.46
By May of 1870, however, Hopkins is making such an entry as
this:
One day when the bluebells were in bloom I wrote the
following. I do not think I have ever seen anything
more beautiful than the bluebell I have been looking
at. I know the beauty of the Lord by it.47
And on August 25, 1870, Hopkins noted:
First saw the Northern Lights. My eye was caught by
beams of light and dark very like the crown of horny
rays the sun makes behind clouds. . . . This busy
working of nature wholly independent of the earth and
seeming to go on in a strain of time not reckoned by
our reckoning of days and years but simpler and as if
correcting the preoccupation of the world by being
preoccupied with and appealing to and dated to the
day of judgment was like a new witness to God and
filled me with fear.48
46Hopkins, Journals and Papers, p. 136.
47
'Hopkins, Journals and Papers, p. 199.
48
Hopkins, Journals and Papers, pp. 199-200.
Although not written until August 7, 1882, the following
statement reflects what was becoming even in these early
days a firm conviction:
God's utterance of himself in himself is God the
Word, outside himself it is the world. This world
then is word, expression, news of God. Therefore
its end, its purpose, its purport, its meaning, is
God and its life or work to name and praise him.4^
As early as August 25, 1870, the symbolic aspect of exter
nal nature was beginning to make itself obvious. But it
was not until 1875 in the writing of "The Wreck of the
Deutschland" that external nature is seen calling to man to
understand in its outward aspects an underlying development
of the plan whereby all things must be related to Christ,
and more specifically to the "Mystical Body of Christ,"
that is, Christ manifesting Himself in events and people.
This gradual development in Hopkins' attitude toward
external nature, from simple observation to the realization
of a deeper underlying significance and, finally, to the
fact that external nature is related to Christ in the "Mys
tical Body," seems to correspond to a development in his
idea of inscape. Hopkins seems to move from the simple
inscape of design or outer form to the inscape of inner
49Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 129.
40
form or significance and, then, to the inscape of the
supernatural telescoped into the natural in order to repre
sent the totality of reality.^0
Professor Pick indicates the variations in the mean
ing of the term "inscape" for Hopkins when he states:
While the term inscape, therefore, was used with
some flexibility, the variations in its application
are largely a matter of emphasis: sometimes he
stresses "inscape" as a configuration, design, shape,
pattern, and contour— the "outer form" of a thing;
sometimes he stresses "inscape” as the ontological
secret behind a thing as "inner form." But usually
he employs the word to indicate the essential indi
viduality and particularity or "selfhood" of a thing
working itself out and expressing itself in design
or pattern.51
In this latter sense "inscape" would be limited primarily
to the early, close observations of external nature by
Hopkins. Pursuing this idea of inscape in Hopkins but
pushing it, I believe, a significant step farther, Alan
Heuser in his book, The Shaping Vision of Gerard Manley
Hopkins, remarks:
But it is the theological application of inscape
which should not be missed. Basic bonds of being
are manifested by the shaping of God's power or
->®It is in this last sense that I use the term "inscape"
in this study when I speak of Hopkins working toward the
all-embracing inscape of the "Mystical Body of Christ."
^Ipick, p. 33.
41
stress— the 'finger' of the Holy Ghost, the 'vein'
sustaining the soul by a rope, the 'discharge' and
current of grace riding the river of time, the drag
net of God's mercy set against natural roots and
ropes, the 'vein' of prayer— until the crucifix and
the arrival of Christ's presence the true type is
revealed: God's inscape is 'Lovescape crucified', his
seal the stigmata; and this is the real shape of the
'unshapeable shock night' which the nun words rightly
by the Word himself.52
The true, all-encompassing inscape toward which Hopkins
seemed to have been working, perhaps unconsciously, the one
that would telescope the supernatural into the natural and
give the totality of reality, was, I believe, the inscape
of the "Mystical Body of Christ" in which external nature,
man, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Holy Ghost, and, in brief,
all creation, natural and supernatural, are summed up. Here
is the inscape par excellence; and the evidence presented
seems to indicate that Hopkins was working toward it.
External nature's relation to the concept of the "Mys
tical Body of Christ" is found indicated in Hopkins' prose,
then, and so is the relation of man and man's daily actions
to it. Christopher Devlin notes in his introduction to
Hopkins' spiritual writings the shift of Hopkins' interest:
But after his ordination [September, 1877] to the
priesthood his interest shifted increasingly from
52(New York, 1958), pp. 47-48.
42
the presence of God's design or inscape (that is,
Christ) in inanimate nature to the working-out of
that design— by instress and stress— in the minds
and wills of men.53
Man, Hopkins felt, had the obligation to see in exter
nal nature not only a general reflection of God but also
and more specifically one of the mystical Christ, as the
divine inscape. Hopkins felt a sadness when he saw man
destroying external nature, as he indicated in a letter to
his mother on October 19, 1863:
This reminds me that they have cut down the beauti
ful beech in the Garden Quad, which stood in the
angle of Fisher's buildings, because it was said to
darken the rooms. This is a wicked thing; such a
beech no doubt has not its like in Oxford, beech
being a rare tree here.54
Ten years later this real feeling, almost sympathy, for
external nature that had been mutilated persisted, as seen
in a letter of April 8, 1873:
The ashtree growing in the corner of the garden was
felled. It was lopped first: I heard this sound and
looking out and seeing it maimed there came at the
moment a great pang and I wished to die and not to
see the inscapes of the world destroyed anymore.55
Still later in 1879 Hopkins expressed the same deep feeling
55Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 109.
^Hopkins, Further Letters, p. 83.
^Hopkins, Further Letters, p. 121.
at seeing external nature wantonly destroyed, as we see in
"Binsey Poplars."
Not only must man appreciate external nature's place
in the working out of his own salvation but he must also
realize that once redeemed by Christ his own daily actions
take on a potentially great spiritual value. Although
man's fall from God's favor in Adam's fall seemed a great
misfortune,56 actually it was a blessing, for it made pos
sible the redemption and man's even greater dignity conse
quent to it. "Man therefore gained by the Fall and Christ's
redemption was a richer one, as bloodred is richer than
white and bloodshed costlier than to heave a sigh, and this
fully satisfies '0 felix culpa' etc."57 The new Christ-man
relation resulting from the redemption must enter into the
solution of every problem which man faces in life. One of
man's great problems, for example, is to see how the daily,
routine work he must do can have an infinite value. Trying
to clarify this point and solve the problem Hopkins, in a
56Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 171:
"There is not only the pomegranate of the whole world but
of each species in it, each race, each individual, and so
on. Of human nature the whole pomegranate fell in Adam.
(Aug. 26 '85)."
57Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 170.
44
sermon of January 4, 1880, said:
Duty is love. What a shame to set off duty against
love and bloat ourselves because we act from love
and so-and-so, our dull neighbour, can but plod his
round of duty! There is nothing higher than duty in
creatures or in God: God the Son's love for God the
Father is duty. Only when I speak thus highly of
duty I mean duty done because it is duty and not
mainly from either hope or fear.5F”
One special member of the human race, the Blessed
Virgin Mary, has a unique relation to the "Mystical Body of
Christ." Because Mary shared in the redemption of the
world, in the great sacrifice on Calvary, both by giving
the Victim physical life and by union of wills with Him in
His suffering, she was made the mediatrix of all grace,
that is, the one through whom all the grace of the redemp
tion passes to the redeemed. In a sermon of October 5,
1879, at Bedford Leigh Hopkins told his congregation:
St. Bernard's saying, All grace given through Mary:
this is a mystery. Like blue sky, which for all
its richness of colour does not stain the sunlight,
though smoke and red clouds do, so God's graces
come to us unchanged but all through her. Moreover
she gladdens the Catholic's heaven and when she is
brightest so is the sun her son: he that sees no
blue sees no sun either, so with Protestants.59
This text, of course, was not part of a consistent explana
tion of the concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ" and
58Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 53.
59Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 29.
45
Mary's part in it. Were there such a consistent explana
tion it would be an easy task to quote it and merely
indicate how part by part Hopkins had explained the concept
of the "Mystical Body of Christ" which plays such a con
sistently prominent part in his poetry. The point being
made here is that Hopkins understood Mary's place in rela
tion to the "Mystical Body of Christ" in a correct and
orthodox manner although he may not have actually used the
term "Mystical Body of Christ" in his various writings on
the Blessed Virgin Mary.60
Finally, the relation of the Holy Ghost to the "Mysti
cal Body of Christ" is seen indicated in Hopkins' prose
writings. In his sermon of May 15, 1881, Hopkins called
the Holy Ghost the soul of the "Mystical Body of Christ":
. . . the Holy Ghost makes every Christian another
Christ, an AfterChrist . . . passes like a restless
breath from heart to heart and is the spirit and life
of all the Church: what the soul is to the human body
that, as St. Austin says, the Holy Ghost is to the
Catholic Church, Christ's body mystical.61
60 For an explanation of the role Mary plays in the
"Mystical Body of Christ" I refer the reader to the "Con
stitution on the Church!' published on November 21, 1964,
and distributed by the National Catholic Welfare Confer
ence in Washington, D. C., pp. 61-69.
^Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 100.
46
Prom this basic understanding of the Holy Ghost's relation
to the "Mystical Body of Christ" there follow his duties,
principally as conserver and comforter. Hopkins continues:
If the Holy Ghost is our spirit and our life, if he
is our universal soul, no wonder, my brethren, no
wonder he is our Paraclete, to lead us and to life us
and to fire us to all holiness and good, a Paraclete
in a way too that Christ alone could never be.62
It is obvious to Hopkins, as the concluding words of this
quotation indicate, that the role of the Holy Ghost is dis
tinct from that of Christ but intimately related to it. In
the sermon of a year earlier, April 25, 1880, on which this
one of May 15, 1881, was based Hopkins had set forth in
greater detail what a Paraclete was and how, though Christ
and the Holy Ghost were both Paracletes, their basic tasks
in the "Mystical Body of Christ" differed. Speaking of
the meaning of the term "Paraclete" and the duties of a
Paraclete, Hopkins said on April 25, 1880:
For God the Holy Ghost is the Paraclete, but what
is a Paraclete? Often it is translated Comforter,
but a Paraclete does more than comfort. The word
is Greek; there is no one English word for it and no
one Latin word, Comforter is not enough. A Paraclete
is one who comforts, who cheers, who encourages, who
persuades, who exhorts, who stirs up, who urges for
ward, who calls on; what the spur and the word of com
mand is to the horse, what clapping of hands is to
62Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 100.
47
a speaker, what a trumpet is to the soldier, that a
Paraclete is to the soul: one who calls us on, that
is what it means, a Paraclete is one who calls us on
to good.
If this is to be a Paraclete, one who cries to the
heart/Come on, no wonder Christ is a Paraclete. For
he was one, he said so himself; though the Holy Ghost
bears the name, yet Christ is a Paraclete too: I will
send you, he says, another Paraclete, meaning that he
himself was a Paraclete, the first Paraclete, the
Holy Ghost the second.63
How the Holy Ghost carries out His task as Paraclete and
vital spirit of the "Mystical Body of Christ" is shown in
the May 15, 1881, sermon, where Hopkins states that it is
through the help and divine assistance of the Holy Ghost
that doctors speak divine wisdom, martyrs suffer torments,
and virgins preserve their chastity. They are all Christ
made known to the world in various aspects in time through
the spirit or soul of the "Mystical Body of Christ," the
Holy Ghost.
Although dispersed in scattered places in his prose
writings, the concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ" and
also the principal aspects related to it were known to
Hopkins. Hopkins had become aware of Christ early, and in
the face of opposition from his family had entered the
Church which he believed Christ had founded. But the
®"^Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 70.
concept of this Church as the "Mystical Body of Christ,"
that is, of Christ living in time through His influence on
His members, seemed to have come only gradually to Hopkins,
evolving it seems from both the ideas of Scotian philosophy
and the Ignatian spirit he found as a Jesuit, and resulting
in an original theological insight into a theological doc
trine little dwelt on at the time.
Hopkins' originality should come as no surprise to one
at all familiar with his poetry. His "sprung rhythm" which
so startled Bridges, Dixon, and Patmore was in its own way
daringly original. But Hopkins felt that he had poetic
insights which he could not well put into the old skins of
conventional rhythm. The new wine of his concept of the
"Mystical Body of Christ" as the all-embracing inscape or
pattern of all creation had to have the new wineskin of an
original rhythm. So Hopkins was not an enemy of change.
He was not afraid to be original, even in theological
matters. Christopher Devlin, as has already been noted,
said of Hopkins' sermon of May 15, 1881, "that GMH's
theological insight was ahead of his time— as he so often
was— in his devotion to the Church as the Mystical Body of
Christ." Devlin also remarked on the basis or origin of
this theological insight when he stated:
49
Scotus1 final conclusion is that it is within God's
power to make the Body of Christ really present
universaliter, anywhere and everywhere in the uni
verse. This leads him to a corollary which is high
ly relevant to Hopkins's speculations:
I say then, but without insisting on it, that
before the Incarnation and 'before Abraham was', in
the beginning of the world, Christ could have had a
true temporal existence in a sacramental manner.
And if this is true, it follows that before the con
ception and formation of the Body of Christ from the
most pure blood of the Glorious Virgin there could
have been the Eucharist (Oxoniense, iv, dist. 10,
qu. 4).64
With this idea in mind, an idea which would have made it
possible for Christ to have dominated all time past, pres
ent, and future, the groundwork for the idea of the "Mysti
cal Body of Christ" would have been laid. In the light of
Scotus' teaching Hopkins could have seen how it was possible
for the Son to adore the Father in the Trinity for all time
and still become the Redeemer of the world. In order for
us to understand this Devlin tells us that Hopkins
. . . distinguishes quite definitely between Christ's
real entry as a creature into the angelic world and
his conception on our earth in historic time; and he
conjures up two Greek terms to emphasize the dis
tinction. Enarkosis, 'the taking of flesh', was the
former. Enanthropesis, 'the becoming man', was the
latter. It is like distinguishing two events in the
great sentence of St. John: 'The Word was made flesh—
and came to dwell among us.'
64Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, pp. 113-114.
50
This is Hopkins's most startling and original
theological innovation. It must be left to the
theologians to judge it.
This insight made him friends at once not only
with the central mysteries of the Trinity and the
Incarnation, but with those aspects of revelation
which more recent times have stressed and amplified:
The Mass and the Mystical Body. . . . Indeed it
might be said that the whole tendency of modern devo
tion . . . is moving in a direction which Hopkins
seems to have anticipated.65
Devlin suggests, then, that the concept of the "Mystical
Body of Christ," which was so important to Hopkins and
toward which Hopkins showed true originality, came from the
theological ideas of Scotus.
Even within the framework of the Society of Jesus
Hopkins showed himself unafraid of originality. An example
of his fearlessness is seen in his own interpretation of
the Spiritual Exercises, on which he was writing a commen
tary. Again Devlin tells us, "It is worth noting that on
nearly every occasion when GMH has a new and personal inter
pretation of the text of St. Ignatius, his interpretation
has been approved by later Jesuit scholars."®® John Pick
has much the same thing to say of Hopkins' "Spiritual
Notes":
®®Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 114.
66
Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 312.
51
The notes are original in the sense that almost
everything Hopkins wrote is original: they are dar
ing in the means they use to get to orthodox con
clusions; for Hopkins always saw reality through his
own eyes, but the vision uncovered was the vision of
the world in which the doctors and the saints of the
Church had shared.67
The conclusion, then, that Hopkins' poetic vision was
dominated or at least strongly influenced by the concept of
the "Mystical Body of Christ," and this conclusion certain
ly by this time seems warranted, need cause us no great
surprise, simply or solely because this concept was not
well known or particularly stressed in Hopkins' day,
although it certainly has become so in ours. As Hopkins
himself said in a sermon of June 26, 1881:
Our Lord said that a scribe learned in the king
dom of heaven would be like a householder who
brought out of his store things new and old— that is
not only brought some new things and some old things
but things that were both new and old, things kept so
long that they were old and kept so well that they
were as good as new. This is what the Church does
or the Holy Ghost who rules the Church: out of the
store which Christ left behind him he brings from
time to time as need requires some doctrine or some
devotion which was indeed known to the Apostles and
is old, but is unknown or little known at the time
and comes upon the world as new. Such was the case
with the worship of the Sacred Heart. . . .68
And Hopkins might have said that this was the case
67pick, p. 100.
6 Q
Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 100.
52
concerning the "Mystical Body of Christ."
Before the end of this introduction on the concept of
the "Mystical Body of Christ" as found in the prose writings
of Gerard Manley Hopkins a few words should be said on the
close relation that seemed to exist between his spiritual
writings, especially his sermons, from which I have quoted
so often, and his poetry. As John Pick so aptly remarks:
The sermons form an integral part of all he was
thinking and feeling. Frequently what he says in
his poems appears again in the sermons; sometimes
what first finds utterance in the pulpit is later
transmuted into poetry.69
Later in the same book Pick repeats what he has said of the
relation of sermon to poetry and gives a specific example
of how the interaction worked:
The interaction between his sermons and his poems
was obviously very deep. The path of influence was
not in one direction: sermon might influence poem or
the reverse might happen. Indeed, at times apparent
ly both were being composed at once; for in reference
to a poem of 1888, "That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire
and of the Comfort of the Resurrection," Hopkins
informed Bridges:
'I will now go to bed, the more so as I am going
to preach tomorrow and put plainly to a Highland
congregation of MacDonalds, Macintoshes, MacKillops
and the rest what I am putting not at all so plainly
to the rest of the world, or rather to you and Canon
k^Pick, p. 85.
Dixon, in a sonnet in sprung rhythm with two codas.'
[Footnote: Letters to Bridges, p. 279]70
Once Hopkins began thinking out an idea or insight it mani
fested itself in his letters, sermons, and spiritual prose
writings. Such an important concept as that of the "Mysti
cal Body of Christ" as an inscape embracing the natural and
the supernatural, external nature, man, the Blessed Virgin
Mary, and the Holy Ghost followed this pattern.
With a few words on the method used in the analyses of
the poems selected for discussion in this dissertation I
shall end this introduction.
Each analysis is organized around a statement of the
subject matter and the theme of the poem as I understand
them. The structure, diction, imagery, and tone of the
poem are related to the subject matter and theme as stated.
In order to give further scope to the work other poems of
Hopkins are referred to when such references help to indi
cate a persistent interest in a particular idea.
The scholarship of others is used where it is of bene
fit to my work. But, since most of the poems selected for
this work, as far as I know, have not been studied for the
specific purpose of tracing the concept of the "Mystical
^Opick, p. 86.
54
Body of Christ" in them, this scholarship is used prin
cipally to illuminate difficult passages in the poems or
to corroborate my own analyses.
Next, the basic ideas of each poem analyzed are
related to Hopkins' prose writings. In this way, I shall
show as clearly as possible the growing interest Hopkins
had in the concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ" not
only in his poetry but in his prose work as well.
Finally, I shall use the entire analysis, based on
a statement of the subject matter and the theme of the
poem as I understand them, corroborated by a close study
of the structure, diction, imagery, and tone, illuminated
by the scholarship of others and related to Hopkins' prose
writings, in order to help me to draw my own conclusions as
to what this particular poem contributes to an understand
ing of the concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ."
SELECTED POEMS IN THE ORDER IN WHICH
THEY ARE ANALYZED AND DISCUSSED
I. "Barnfloor and Winepress" (Poems, No. 18)
II. "Hurrahing in Harvest" (Poems, No. 38)
III. "As Kingfishers Catch Fire, Dragonflies Draw Flame"
(Poems, No. 57)
IV. "St. Alphonsus Rodriguez" (Poems, No. 73)
V. "The Caged Skylark" (Poems, No. 39)
VI. "Rosa Mystica" (Poems, No. 27)
VII. "God's Grandeur" (Poems, No. 31)
55
CHAPTER I
"BARNFLOOR AND WINEPRESS”
The evidence is substantial, in the introduction to
this study, that the concept of the "Mystical Body of
Christ" was important to Hopkins1 thinking in his prose
writing. But the chief purpose of this dissertation is
to indicate the prominence of that concept in the seven
poems selected for this study; and to endeavor to clarify
the meaning of each poem as it is shown to set forth that
concept.
The first poem to be treated is "Barnfloor and Wine
press," which was begun in 1864 and which first appeared
in print in The Union Review in 1865.-*- Hopkins became a
Catholic in October of 1866 and, therefore, this poem which
sets forth the concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ" in
general outline was written while Hopkins was an Anglican.
•'■Gardner, II, 90; "'Barnfloor and Winepress' (begun
in 1864) was printed in 1865."
56
57
Nevertheless, it was during this time that Hopkins gave
serious thought to the doctrines of the Catholic Church
with a mind to entering it.^
Barnfloor and Winepress
"And he said, If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I
help thee? Out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress?"
(II Kings vi. 27)
Thou that on sin's wages starvest.
Behold we have the joy in harvest:
For us was gather'd the first-fruits
For us was lifted from the roots,
Sheaved in cruel bands, bruised sore
Scourged upon the threshing floor;
Where the upper mill-stone roof'd His head,
At morn we found the heavenly Bread,
And on a thousand Altars laid,
Christ our Sacrifice is made.
Those whose dry plot for moisture gapes,
We shout with them that tread the grapes:
For us the Vine was fenced with thorn,
Five ways the precious branches torn;
Terrible fruit was on the tree
In the acre of Gethsemane;
For us by Calvary's distress
The wine was racked from the press;
Now in our altar-vessels stored
Is the sweet Vintage of our Lord.
^Hopkins, Further letters, p. 27. In a letter to
E. W. Urquhart dated September 24, 1866, Hopkins wrote,
". . . although my actual conversion was two months ago
yet the silent conviction that I was to become a Catholic
has been present to me for perhaps a year, as strongly,
in spite of my resistance to it when it formed itself into
words, as if I had already determined it."
58
in Joseph's garden they threw by
The riv'n vine, leafless, lifeless, dry:
On Easter morn the Tree was forth,
In forty days reach'd Heaven from earth;
Soon the whole world is overspread;
Ye weary, come into the shade.
The field where He has planted us
Shall shake her fruit as Libanus,
When He has sheaved us in His sheaf,
When He has made us bear His leaf.—
We scarcely call that banquet food,
But even our Saviour's and our blood,
We are so grafted on His wood.
The SUBJECT MATTER of "Barnfloor and Winepress" is the
barnfloor and winepress symbolizing the process wherein
wheat and grapes are transformed into bread and wine. The
bread and wine so made are changed into the Body and Blood
of Christ and ultimately the Body and Blood of Christ become
the unifying element of the "Mystical Body of Christ."
The poem's THEME is that the physical process whereby
wheat and grapes are turned into bread and wine is a symbol
of the spiritual process of self-abnegation that Christ
underwent in His passion and death on the cross to redeem
the world and which all persons who would become incorpor
ated with Him must imitate if they wish to belong to His
Mystical Body, the Church, whose unity-in-diversity is
symbolized by the Eucharist.
The EXTERNAL STRUCTURE of "Barnfloor and Winepress"
59
tends to corroborate the fact that the poem is about Christ,
for it is thirty-three lines long, the age of Christ as His
death. From the Old Testament quotation set by Hopkins
below the title to the end of the poem, "Barnfloor and
Winepress" reveals the three aspects of Christ's life dis
cussed above: His foreshadowed existence in the Old Testa
ment, His physical life described in the gospels, and His
mystical existence presented in the Pauline epistles.
The quotation from the Old Testament set below the
poem's title, "And He said, If the Lord do not help thee,
whence shall I help thee? Out of the barnfloor, or out of
q
the winepress?" (II Kings 6:27), is a good example of what
I have spoken of in the introduction to this study as a
"foreshadowing." And Old Testament "foreshadowing" suggests
something that is yet to appear. In II Kings 6:27 the
"foreshadowing" of the Eucharist, and implicitly the
•^The context of this quotation makes it apt as an
introduction to this poem. A starving woman, subject of
Jehoram, king of Israel, asks him for food. In answer the
king replies, "If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall
I help thee? Out of the barnfloor, or out of the wine
press?" The starving woman is a symbol of those spiritually
starving in the poem's first line. The products of the
barnfloor and winepress represent the food and drink they
are given. In this poem "The Lord" is Christ, and the food
He gives the spiritually starving is His Body and Blood.
60
suffering which produced it, is spoken of under the terms
of a "barnfloor and winepress." Hopkins makes clear that
this Old Testament "foreshadowing" is fulfilled in the poem
when he describes the sufferings of Christ and their rela
tion to the Eucharist in terms of harvesting wheat and
gathering grapes.
The poem proper begins, as we can see from an examina
tion of the INTERNAL STRUCTURE, with an invitation to the
unjust,^ that is, those who have not as yet been united to
Christ, to enter into union with Him. This invitation is
repeated in lines eleven and twenty-six: "Thou that on
sin's wages starvest,/ Behold we have the joy in harvest";
"Those whose dry plot for moisture gapes,/ We shout with
them that tread the grapes" and "Ye weary, come into the
shade." This invitation is juxtaposed against an expres
sion of joy, in lines two and twelve, by those who have
accepted the invitation. Lines three to eight and thirteen
^Hopkins distinguishes between the reaction of the
unjust (the faithless) men, and the just (the faithful)
men, that is, those who have not been incorporated into
the "Mystical Body of Christ" and those who have been
incorporated. This distinction is employed in my study in
"Hurrahing in Harvest," "St. Alphonsus Rodriguez," "The
Caged Skylark," and "God's Grandeur." At the mystery of
Christ living in the world, "The faithful [just] waver,
the faithless [unjust] fable and miss."
61
to eighteen describe simultaneously (1) the physical pro
cess involved in harvesting wheat and gathering grapes for
making bread and wine, and (2) the preparation of Christ,
Body and Blood, for the Passion of His sacrifice on the
cross, a sacrifice which anticipates the unbloody sacrifice
of the altar where bread and wine are transformed into His
Body and Blood. Lines nine and ten and nineteen and
twenty speak of this unbloody sacrifice.
First, the preparation of Christ's Body for the
sacrifice of the cross is presented in terms used to des
cribe the harvesting of wheat:
For us was gather'd the first-fruits
For us was lifted from the roots.
Sheaved in cruel bands, bruised sore
Scourged upon the threshing floor;
Where the upper mill-stone roof'd His head.
At morn we found the heavenly Bread.
Then, the preparation of Christ's Blood for the sacrifice
of the cross is presented in terms that describe the
gathering of grapes:
For us the Vine was fenced with thorn;
Five ways the precious branches torn;
Terrible fruit was on the tree
In the acre of Gethsemane;
For us by Calvary's distress
The wine was racked from the press.
Next, the end product of the suffering of Christ is
presented:
62
And on a thousand Altars laid,
Christ our Sacrifice is made.
Now in our altar-vessels stored
Is the sweet Vintage of our Lord.
In lines twenty-one to twenty-six Hopkins has des
cribed in rapid order the resurrection and the ascension of
Christ and the rapid expansion of Christ's Church through
out the world.
In Joseph's garden they threw by
The riv'n Vine, leafless, lifeless, dry:
On Easter morn the Tree was forth,
In forty days reach'd Heaven from earth;
Soon the whole world is overspread.
Lines twenty-seven to thirty describe under the imagery of
wheat and grapes the process of incorporation into the mys
tical Christ, the Church, which Christ's would-be members
must undergo.
The field where He has planted us
Shall shake her fruit as Libanus,
When He has sheaved us in His sheaf,
When He has made us bear His leaf.
Christ's would-be members must share His own life and then
they will share His own actions, "bear His leaf."5 Finally,
5The allusion here is to John 15:4-5, "Abide in me and
I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye
abide in me. 5 I am the vine, ye are the branches. He
that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth
much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing." The entire
passage of John 5:1-17 refers to the union of Christ and
His members in the "Mystical Body.
63
so complete will be the identification of Christ and His
members in one body that they will speak of the Eucharist
not as food, something external, "But even our Saviour's
and our blood,/ We are so grafted on His wood."
As would be expected from the subject matter and the
theme of this poem stated above, the DICTION is predomi
nantly biblical. In the first line, the phrase "sin's
wages" is a reference to St. Paul's statement that, "the
wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ Our Lord." {Romans 6:23) The first
invitation of the poem is to the unjust who are spiritually
dead in sin. Their spiritual starvation must be remedied
by the living Bread, Christ.
The mention of Christ as the "first fruits" in line
three is also a biblical echo of St. Paul's first Epistle
to the Corinthians, chapter 15, verses 19 to 23, where he
states:
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are
of all men most miserable.
20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and
become the firstfruits of them that slept. 21 For
since by man came death, by man came also resurrec
tion of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even
so in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But every
man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; after
ward they that are Christ's at his coming. [Italics
mine]
64
Christ has led the way by His suffering and so won victory
over death. Similarly, His followers, those who wish to
be incorporated in His mystical Body, must suffer and die
to their sinful natures and so win the victory over death.
But Christ must be the first one to reap the benefits of
His own suffering and by that suffering make possible for
His members the victory over the death of sin. He must be
the first-fruits of the redeemed human race, just as the
first-fruits, the choicest part of the Jewish farmer's
harvest, were offered to God.
"The heavenly Bread" mentioned in line eight of
"Barnfloor and Winepress" refers to the Eucharist, the
Body of Christ, and the symbol of unity in the "Mystical
Body" between Christ and His members. Explaining this
teaching St. Paul, again in First Corinthians 10:16-17,
said, "The bread which we break, is it not the communion of
the body of Christ? 17 For we being many are one bread,
and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread."
This same idea of the Eucharist as a symbol of the unity in
the "Mystical Body of Christ" is further explained by Pope
Pius XII in his encyclical letter, Mystici Corporis, where
he writes:
65
The Sacrament of the Eucharist is itself a striking
and wonderful figure of the unity of the Church, if
we consider how in the bread to be consecrated many
grains go to form one whole,® and that in it the
very Author of supernatural grace is given to us, so
that through Him we may receive the spirit of char
ity in which we are bidden to live no longer our own
life but the life of Christ, and to love the Redeemer
Himself in all the members of His social Body.7
An understanding of this idea of the Eucharist as a symbol
of unity in the "Mystical Body of Christ" is important for
a full understanding of this poem.
In line seventeen the word "distress" is particularly
well chosen. The word not only means "oppression; suffer
ing" as Webster states** but also, from its Latin etymology,
"distringere, to draw asunder," suggests the physical pro
cess whereby the Body of Christ was stretched out on the
cross. As grapes must be pressed together to obtain the
wine from them, so the Body of Christ was "drawn asunder"
6Implicit here is the idea of each grain's (member's)
individuality, which is retained even after incorporation
in the "Mystical Body of Christ." This idea would have
appealed to Hopkins, who loved the selfhood and individual
ity of things and at no cost would have sacrificed it.
Cf. "As Kingfishers Catch Fire, Dragonflies Draw Flame."
(Poems, No. 57)
n
'National Catholic Welfare Conference, pamphlet
(Washington, 1943), pp. 31-32.
O
°This and subsequent references are to Webster's Third
International Dictionary, unabridged edition.
66
and His blood, "the sweet Vintage of our Lord," was wrung
from Him. This idea of pressing grapes to obtain wine is
suggested by the word "Gethsemane" in "line sixteen of the
poem. "Gethsemane," however, means "oil press." Father
Robert Boyle thinks that the wine and oil figures merge to
form a still richer figure of speech:
The name of the garden means "oil press," and
Hopkins adverts to the connection in his early
"Barnfloor and Winepress" (Poems, No. 18). . . .
The oil of Gethsemane can readily flow into the
wine of the Eucharist of Calvary, since oil and
wine are closely associated in Scriptural imagery.9
Hopkins had actually used the oil and wine figures together
in a poem of July, 1864, "A Soliloquy of One of the Spies
Left in the Wilderness" (Poems, No. 5), where he wrote:
Give us the tale of bricks as heretofore;
To knead with cool feet the clay juicy soil.
Who tread the grapes are splay'd with stripes
of gore,
And they who crush the oil
Are spatter'd. We desire the yoke we bore,
The easy burden of yore.
In "New Readings" (Poems, No. 6) also written in July, 1864,
Hopkins had expressed this same idea of the drops of wine
from the grape as the Blood of Christ when he wrote:
9Metaphor in Hopkins, pp. 32-33.
67
Although the letter said
On thistles that men look not grapes to gather,
I read the story rather
How soldiers platting thorns around CHRIST'S HEAD
Grapes grew and drops of wine were shed.10
Finally, the diction of "Barnfloor and Winepress"
stresses the firmness of the unity between Christ and His
members in the "Mystical Body" by the use of the words
"Libanus" in line twenty-eight and "grafted" and "wood" in
the last line. Libanus is a mountain in northern Palestine
on which grew the tallest trees of the country, the sturdy
cedars that became for the Jews a symbol of strength and
durability.il So in lines twenty-seven and twenty-eight,
"The field where He has planted us/ Shall shake her fruit
as Libanus," Hopkins by an allusion to the Old Testament is
stressing the closeness and firmness of the union between
Christ and His members once they are united.
The words "grafted" and "wood" in the poem's last
^ Poems Numbers 6 and 7 are both early versions of
"Barnfloor and Winepress" and express basically the same
ideas.
^■1Dom Bernard Orchard, ed. , A Catholic Commentary on
Holy Scripture, p. 520. In a gloss to Ecclesiasticus
24:17 the editor writes, "The cedars of Lebanon are
proverbial for their majestic growth, and the beauty and
durability of their wood." Psalm 92, verses 12-13, sug
gest the cedar tree as a symbol of the just man who is
planted, that is, firmly rooted, in the Lord's field.
68
line suggest the close union of Christ in His members and
the oneness in Christian thought of suffering as the means
of union with Christ. The word "wood" refers both to the
wood of the Vine, Christ, and the wood of the cross on
which He suffered and died. Further suggesting this close
union of Christ and His members is the frequent use of the
words "we," "us," and "our" throughout the poem.
The IMAGERY of "Barnfloor and Winepress" is consist
ent, and is scripturally based. The first section of the
poem, lines one to ten, uses a sustained, compound image of
wheat-bread-Body of Christ. The second section of the
poem, lines eleven to twenty, uses a sustained, compound
image of grapes-wine-Blood of Christ. The third section,
lines twenty-one to twenty-six, sustains the vine imagery;
and section four, lines twenty-seven to thirty-three,
blends bodi the wheat and the vine imagery into the Body
and Blood of Christ, while stressing the Eucharist as the
source of unity in the "Mystical Body of Christ."
Lines three to seven describe the scourging of Christ
in terms of harvesting wheat. First the wheat is violently
ripped from the earth, stalk and all, in the primitive
fashion of Jewish farmers. Then the stalks of wheat are
bound in cords and beaten against the stone threshing floor
69
until the grains are shaken loose. Hopkins used the word
"thrashing" for "threshing" in some versions of the poem,
suggesting the scourging of Christ in the threshing pro
cess. These grains are then put into a mill where the
mill stones grind them into flour for making bread. The
crown of thorns placed on the head of Christ here is
likened to the upper of the two mill stones.^
Lines thirteen to eighteen describe the scourging of
Christ in terms of gathering grapes for making wine. In
the process of gathering the grapes, the entire vine is
violently uprooted, bound with cords for convenient handl
ing and, when it reaches the winery, is torn asunder into
five parts, an obvious reference to the piercing of Christ
with the nails and spear. Hopkins was to make reference to
the stigmata of Christ, the five wounds, in "Rosa Mystica,"
"St. Alphonsus Rodriguez," and "The Wreck of the
12Poems, p. 217, Gardner's note to "Barnfloor and Wine
press . "
13The words "Where the upper mill-stone roof'd His
head" are an echo of Matthew's statement in his gospel,
"and plaiting a crown of thorns, they put it upon his
head." (Matt. 27:29) See also Mark 15:18 and John 19:2.
The crown of thorns was more like a cap which covered the
entire top of the head than a circle of thorns around the
head. In this sense "upper mill-stone" can be compared to
the crown of thorns which capped Christ's head.
70
Deutschland." In the last named poem he wrote:
Five I the finding and the sake
And cipher of suffering Christ.
Mark, the mark is of man's make
And the word of it Sacrificed.
■ £ +
This Vine, "leafless, lifeless, dry," is Christ (John 15:5),
and it is presented to us in line twenty-five as covering
the entire world. "Soon the whole world was overspread."
Obviously this is not the physical Christ but the mystical
Christ, Christ living in His universal Church.
The dominant TONE of the poem is one of joy— a joy that
follows sorrow. The sorrow is suggested by the opening
lines of the first and second sections where sinners, the
unjust, are starving and thirsting to death for want of
food and drink in their sinful state. The Bread of Christ's
Body and the Wine of His Blood are offered to the unjust to
satisfy their hunger and slake their thirst. With the
acceptance of this Bread and Wine, along with the union of
Christ's mystical Body that it symbolizes, a joy and an
exultation ensue. These are the joy and the exultation of
the just.
David Downes gives a brief analysis of "Barnfloor and
Winepress" in his book. He writes:
One of the most powerful meditations on the
Passion (and implicitly the Holy Eucharist) is an
71 ■
early poem, "Barnfloor and Winepress," which indi
cates how deeply Christ's passion affected him
[Hopkins] as a young man. In this poem, Hopkins
states the redemptive meaning of the Passion and
Death of Christ. . . . Thus he stated a general
tenet of Christianity, that the instrument God often
uses to make men over in the image of His Divine Son
will be suffering, suffering for His sake. This is
true imitation of Christ. This is what Hopkins is
saying in the lines quoted above. ["Barnfloor and
Winepress"]14
This analysis, although only a brief and summary one, does
touch on two main ideas of "Barnfloor and Winepress."
These two ideas are that suffering enables us to imitate
Christ. Both of these ideas are implicit in my statement
of the poem's theme. However, in my statement of the theme
of the poem I have carried these ideas, as I believe
Hopkins carries them in the poem, to their logical conclu
sion, namely, that the suffering and death of Christ which
produced the Eucharist must be imitated by those who would
became members of the "Mystical Body of Christ" and that
the Eucharist itself is the symbol of that union of Christ
and His members. Downes' analysis is a good example of one
that would be further enriched by a consideration of the
basic doctrines of Christianity, the Passion of Christ and
the Eucharist, in relation to the all-embracing concept of
the "Mystical Body of Christ." To speak only of the
14
Downes, pp. 107-108.
72
Passion of Christ and the institution of the Eucharist
along with our imitation of Christ through them, but with
no reference to the incorporation of all of Christ's mem
bers resulting from these things, fails to consider such
important lines as, "When He has sheaved us in His sheaf,/
When He has made us bear His leaf."
Having thus far closely analyzed "Barnfloor and Wine
press," and considered the light other scholars have thrown
on it, I turn now to a consideration of its basic ideas
with reference to the concept of the "Mystical Body of
Christ" as I have outlined them as expressed in Hopkins'
prose writings.
"Barnfloor and Winepress" expresses four basic, impor
tant ideas about the "Mystical Body of Christ." First is
the oneness-in-multiplicity of the "Mystical Body"— "We
are so grafted on His wood." Second is the idea of Christ
as the head of the "Mystical Body" as "first-fruits" in the
natural order, and as Redeemer or Priest— "But even our
Saviour's and our blood." Third is the idea that as Christ
became head of the "Mystical Body" only through the death
of His physical Body, so His members can become incorpor
ated with Christ only through the death of their sinful
natures. The death of Christ and His members is suggested
73
by the process of grinding the grains of wheat and pressing
out the grapes. Both wheat and grapes give up one form of
life for the sake of a higher one. For Christ it was giv
ing up His physical life for the sake of His mystical life;
for His members it is the giving up of their sinful lives
for the sake of a higher, spiritual life in Christ through
baptism. Last is the idea that once they become members of
the "Mystical Body" men live the life of Christ, "bear His
leaf," and in a certain mysterious sense become in action
identified with Christ.
These four basic ideas are expressed in Hopkins' prose
writings. His sermon of May 15, 1881, presents the idea of
many members in one mystical Christ, a union brought about
by Baptism:
Christ was himself one and lived and died but once;
but the Holy Ghost makes every Christian another
Christ, an AfterChrist; lives a million lives in
every age, is the courage of the martyrs, the wisdom
of the doctors, the purity of the virgins; is
breathed into each at Baptism, may be quenched by
sin in one soul, but then is kindled in another.
[Italics mine]15
The life of these members is obviously not the life of the
physical Christ, because "Christ was himself one and lived
and died but once." No, the life they live is the life of
15Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 100.
74
the mystical Christ, in His Church. Though many members,
they are one in Christ. And this Christ-life "is breathed
into each at Baptism." Once the members of this "Mystical
Body" live the life of Christ, they "bear His leaf," that
is, their actions are the actions of Christ. The life of
Christ in His members "is the courage of the martyrs, the
wisdom of the doctors, the purity of the virgins."
Christ is the head of this "Mystical Body" because
He is its first-fruits and because He won for it redemption
through His suffering and death. The idea of Christ as
the first-fruits of the redeemed human race is presented
in detail in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, an
epistle which Hopkins had heard Liddon lecture on in May
of 1863,16 about a year before "Barnfloor and Winepress"
was written. Hopkins also made a direct reference to
Christ as the first-fruits of the redeemed human race in a
letter to Richard Watson Dixon some years later.1^
Hopkins also understood that Christ was the head of
the "Mystical Body" by priestly pre-eminence, as he stated
in an incomplete sermon for September 14, 1879:
l^Hopkins, Journals and Papers, pp. 76-77.
17
Hopkins, Letters to Dixon, p. 132.
75
This is a great matter, the Holy Mass, much a greater
matter than the appletree which ruined Adam and Eve
and all of us. . . . The Word of God, second person
of the divine Trinity, our blessed Jesus Christ, came
down from everlasting heaven, was made man, lived
among men, was given into the hands of sinners. . . .
and accomplished his bloody sacrifice on the cross.
He died, he rose again, he ascended into heaven.
But his sacrifice goes on every year, every week,
every day, because every day Mass is offered.18
In its economy and conciseness the sentence, "He died, he
rose again, he ascended into heaven," is almost a summary
of the third section of "Barnfloor and Winepress." In any
event, this quotation from Hopkins' prose writings clearly
indicates Hopkins1 thought that Christ redeemed men by His
priestly "sacrifice of the cross," a sacrifice that is
perpetuated in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the central
action of Christ's Mystical Body, the Church.
■0
In conclusion, it appears that "Barnfloor and Wine
press," as my statement of its subject matter and theme
have suggested, gives a presentation of the general concept
of the "Mystical Body of Christ." The structure, diction,
imagery, and tone of the poem corroborate this statement.
Of the two scholars who comment on the poem only David
Downes comments at any length, and his analysis would
benefit if read in the larger context of the concept of
1 f t
- ‘ • ‘ ’Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 236.
the "Mystical Body of Christ." Some of Hopkins' prose
writings, finally, contain the same basic ideas as those
in the poem. Although his ideas are expressed sometimes in
prose of a later date, early in his life (he was only
twenty-five when "Barnfloor and Winepress" was written) and
early in his poetic career the concept of the "Mystical
Body of Christ" was present, and in rather clear detail,
as the meaning of this poem indicates.
CHAPTER II
"HURRAHING IN HARVEST"
In 1877, the year of his ordination to the catholic
Priesthood, Hopkins wrote "Hurrahing in Harvest." The
basic image of the poem is one that runs throughout "Barn
floor and Winepress," namely, the image of a harvest.
Unlike "Barnfloor and Winepress," however, which presents
the concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ" in general
terms, "Hurrahing in Harvest" concentrates on one aspect
of that concept, external nature, and indicates its rela
tion to the "Mystical Body of Christ." In "Hurrahing in
Harvest" the emphasis shifts from Christ Himself to Christ
manifested in external nature. As Hopkins wrote in his
Commentary on the Exercises:
God's utterance of himself in himself is God the
Word, outside himself is this world. This world
then is word, expression, news, of God. Therefore,
its end, its purpose, its purport, its meaning, is
God, and its life or work to name and praise him.1
Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 129.
77
78
Hurrahing in Harvest
Summer ends now; now, barbarous in beauty, the stooks
arise
Around; up above, what wind-walksl what lovely
behaviour
Of silk-sack clouds 1 has wilder, wilful-wavier
Meal-drift moulded ever and melted across skies?
I walk, I lift up, I lift up heart, eyes,
Down all that glory in the heavens to glean our Saviour;
And, ^yes, he^rt, what looks, what lips yet gave you a
Rapturous love's greeting of realer, of rounder replies?
And the azurous hung hills are his world-wielding shoulder
Majestic— as a stallion stalwart, very-violet-sweet!
These things, these things were here and but the beholder
Wanting; which two when they once meet,
The heart rears wings bold and bolder
And hurls for him, 0 half hurls earth for him off under
his feet.
The SUBJECT MATTER of "Hurrahing in Harvest" is exulta
tion in the year's harvest, symbolizing the joyful recogni
tion of Christ in redeemed external nature.
The THEME of the poem is that the joyful recognition
of Christ in redeemed external nature only comes when one
sees that redeemed nature fulfilling its role of responding
fully to the redemption which Christ won for it by using
its inner vitality to draw all men to the Redeemer.
The EXTERNAL STRUCTURE of "Hurrahing in Harvest" is
that of a Petrarchan sonnet with a rhyme scheme of
abbaabba in the two quatrains of the octave and cdcdcd in
79
the sestet.
In the INTERNAL STRUCTURE of the poem, the first qua
train describes an autumn scene by singling out the two
most obvious aspects of it, namely, a landscape of corn
stacks and a skyscape of cirrus, "silk-sack," and cirro-
cumulus, "meal-drift moulded,” clouds.
Summer ends now; now, barbarous in beauty, the stooks
arise
Around; up above, what wind-walksl what lovely
behaviour
Of silk-sack clouds! has wilder, wilful-wavier
Meal-drift moulded ever and melted across skies?
The second quatrain of the octave gives the poet's
individual reaction to this scene "barbarous in beauty."
The poet was walking alone one day as he came from fishing
when suddenly2 he lifted his whole being, "heart, eyes,"
and caught in an instant not only the natural beauty of the
earthly scene but also an inscape of the supernatural
telescoped into the natural scene, which was for him the
totality of reality. Hopkins saw the scene rich in impli
cations of the concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ."
His whole being was satisfied in its seeking of Christ by
the reality and fullness of the reply this autumn scene
2Hopkins, Letters to Bridges, p. 56: "The Hurrahing
sonnet was the outcome of half an hour of extreme
enthusiasm as I walked alone one day from fishing in
the Elwy."
80
gave him. We are reminded of the lines in "The Wreck of
the Deutschland":
Since, tho' he is under the world's splendour and wonder
His mystery must be instressed, stressed;
For I greet him the days I meet him, and bless when I
understand.
In this poem Hopkins wrote:
I walk, I lift up, I lift up heart and eyes,
Down all that glory in the heavens to glean our Saviour;
And, eyes, hecfrt, what looks, what lips yet gave you a
Rapturous love's greeting of realer, of rounder replies?
The sestet of "Hurrahing in Harvest" at once answers
the rhetorical questions of the first two quatrains. The
sestet then makes a universal application of the truth
which the poet had grasped, not only abstractly and ration-
ally, but concretely and emotionally, in the autumn scene
he saw. That truth was that Christ, Our Savior specifi
cally, and not God generically, is present in all creation,
even inanimate creation, because Christ was external
nature's Savior just as He was the Savior of the human
race.^ This truth which Hopkins grasped and incorporated
Maurice B[asil] McNamee, S. J., "Poet of Nature and
the Supernatural," in Immortal Diamond, ed. Norman Weyand,
S. J., pp. 241-242: "One has only to read his diaries and
poetry to realize that Hopkins saw all things, even natural
beauty, transfused with a new significance because of the
Incarnation. Stars and bluebells remind him now not merely
of God but of Christ. After surveying the beauty of an
81
into his poem will be more fully substantiated in my study
of the poem's diction.
In the sestet Hopkins introduces the hills which sur
round the autumn landscape he has observed and sees in them
Christ both in majesty, "as a stallion stalwart," and at
the same time appealing in His loving kindness, "very-
violet-sweet I" The whole autumn scene is pregnant with
meaning for one who sees, as Hopkins has, below the sur
face. Only the "beholder" is wanting, the man who will
look at and see not only the natural beauty of the scene
but also the supernatural telescoped into the natural, in
brief, the totality of reality. Once external nature and
the perceptive "beholder" meet, the result must be one of
joyful exultation similar to that which the unjust man in
"Barnfloor and Winepress" felt once he had accepted the
invitation to become incorporated with the "Mystical Body
3
(continued) Autumn sky in Hurrahing in Harvest, he
continues:
I walk, I lift up, I lift up heart, eyes,
Down all that glory in the heavens to glean our
Saviour.
Thus Hopkins came to invest everything with a double sacra-
mentalism. He had learned not only to see nature 'charged
with the grandeur of God'; he had also learned to 'inscape'
it with the Incarnate Word." [Italics mine]
of Christ" in the Eucharistic harvest of His Body and
Blood. In "Hurrahing in Harvest" the union with Christ
comes through the redeemed universe. That universe,
external nature in this poem, stands triumphant because it
has responded to Christ's saving redemption. Only man has
not fully responded; and once he does respond, then exter
nal nature will speak to him as it always speaks of its
gloriously redeemed state.
A close study of the DICTION of "Hurrahing in Harvest"
substantiates the statements made thus far about the mean
ing of the poem. The first word that calls for comment is
"Hurrahing" in the title. The word, used as a verbal, means
"uttering hurrahs, cheering," and sets the tone of the poem
as one of joyful exuberance. By the alliteration of
"Hurrahing" with "Harvest" a suggestion is made as to the
reason for this exuberance, that is, the reaping of some
thing which has grown ripe. The word "Harvest" immediately
suggests the autumn of the year, the time when the fruit of
an earlier planting is gathered in. The harvest to be
gathered in this poem, as it will develop later, is the
natural beauty of the universe planted by God at the
Creation, redeemed by Christ on the Cross, and now ripe for
man's taking. The word "Harvest," however, has a
83
supernatural overtone as what is to be gleaned in this
harvest is not only the natural beauty of an autumn land
scape and skyscape but also the supernatural beauty of "our
Saviour" in them.
The opening words of the poem proper, "Summer ends
now," seem to be an echo of Jeremiah 8:20, "the summer is
ended, and we are not saved."4 These words set the bibli
cal background for the entire poem, just as the quotation
from II Kings 6:27 did for "Barnfloor and Winepress." The
context of Jeremiah 8:20 speaks of a people who will not
recognize their God but turn instead to idols and non
entities.5 There is an implication in "Hurrahing in Har
vest" also that men do not recognize Christ "our Saviour"
in external nature, allowing it to remain an unnoticed
backdrop for their busy lives.
4Gardner, II, 253: "In the first line we hear an echo
of Jeremiah: 'summer is ended, and we are unsaved.'"
^Jeremiah 8:19-20: "Behold the voice of the cry of the
daughter of my people/ Because of them that dwell in a far
country: l£ not the Lord in Zion?/ Is^ not her king in
her?/ Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven
images,/ And with strange vanities? 20 follows." There
are two points of similarity between II Kings 6:27 and
Jeremiah 8:20. In both cases the Lord is called on and
answers, in II Kings 6:27 by giving the starving woman the
products of the barnfloor and the winepress and in
Jeremiah 8:20 by showing the misguided who looked for God
in idols the true God as seen in nature.
"Now, barbarous in beauty, the stooks arise/ Around"
follows the introductory phrase. "Barbarous" is used here
in its root meaning of barb, beard, and, as W. H. Gardner
says, "the whole phrase 'barbarous in beauty* epitomizes
both the shaggy tidiness of stooked corn and the graceful
disarray of fluctuant, disintegrating clouds— in fact, all
the apparently capricious energy of nature."^ The "stooks"
are "shocks, stocks" as Hopkins himself suggests in an
entry in his Journal for August 8, 187 4: ". . . the
sheaves were scattered and left in the rain, not made into
stooks (which by the by the Devonshire people call
shocks.)"^
The heavens next catch the poet's eye, perhaps by the
process of his following the "stooks" from the ground to
their tops and then to the heavens. "Up above, what wind-
walks," that is, the open walks or passageways between
either the clouds considered as the harvest field of the
sky or the clouds already harvested and stacked in the
storehouse. Perhaps the second interpretation is better,
because the words "sack" and "meal-drift moulded . . . and
^Gardner, II, 253-254.
^Hopkins, Journals and Papers, pp. 250-251.
85
melted across skies" suggest a storehouse in which the pro
duce of the harvest is both neatly stacked in rows and, in
the case of an overturned sack, spilled across the floor.
This second reading of the clouds as the stored produce of
the heavenly harvest is further suggested by the closing
lines of "The Starlight Night," written just seven months
previously in February of 187 7.8
The next word which needs comment is "behaviour" in
the phrase "what lovely behaviour." The importance of this
word is indicated by the fact that it is set apart by itself
in a line. Hopkins explains it in an entry in his Note
books. "A beautiful instance of inscape sided on the slide,
that is/ successive sidings of one inscape . . . and of
course if the whole 'behaviour1 were gathered up and so
stalled it would have a beauty of all the higher degree."9
The word "behaviour" for Hopkins seems to mean the many
facets of one object caught as though frozen for the
moment. It is as though after seeing something from a
8The closing lines of "The Starlight Night" are:
These are indeed the barn; withindoors house
The shocks. This piece-bright paling shuts the
spouse
Christ home, Christ and his mother and all his
hallows.
9Hopkins, Journals and Papers, p. 211.
number of different angles at various times, a person were
to see all these different aspects merge into one "inscape"
combining the full richness of the object. Hopkins had
written later in his Journal, ". . . the greatest stack of
cloud, to call it one cloud, I ever recall seeing. . . .
The instress of its size came from comparison not with what
was visible but with the remembrance of other clouds."10
The "behaviour" seen in this particular poem is "Of silk-
sack clouds" and of clouds like "Meal-drift moulded . . .
and melted across the skies." Raymond V. Schoder says that
the meaning of "sack" in this passage is "a flowing silk
cape attached to the shoulders of the 18th. Century French
gown, and falling down to form a train."H This meaning of
the word "sack" while sustaining the harvest image also
prepares the way for the opening image of the sestet where
Christ is presented as a king robed in the grandeur of His
creation.
The term "behaviour" calls for one further comment.
It suggests that external nature has a unique selfhood
■^Hopkins, Journals and Papers, p. 212.
^"An Interpretive Glossary of Difficult Words in the
Poems [of G. M. Hopkins]," in Immortal Diamond, ed. Norman
Weyand, S. J., p. 203.
............87 ’
which almost amounts to a personality since we ordinarily
speak of the "behaviour" of persons rather than things. I
will discuss this idea more fully in my analysis of "God's
Grandeur.”
In the fifth line of "Hurrahing in Harvest" Hopkins
tells us that this autumn scene is first grasped by the
"heart" and then by the "eyes," that is, that the full
implications of the scene are grasped first by the inner
faculties, and only subsequently by the external ones. In
line seven the words "heart and eyes" are reversed to "eyes
and heart," with stress marks, which suggest that once the
inner significance of a scene is grasped by intuition, the
external faculties, "eyes," can approach that scene with a
deeper knowledge. The word "heart" appears often in
Hopkins' poetry.^ Explaining its meaning Robert Boyle
writes, "The heart in Hopkins, then, knows and reveals
the truth, and loves and seeks the good. It is the prin
ciple of life and life-giving, of knowledge, of love— and
further, of act. "I** The "heart" sees below the surface of
things and grasps the full meaning of their being; the
l2See Poems, Nos. 23, 46, 55, 61, 63, and 69.
^ Metaphor jn Hopkins, p. 78.
88
"eyes" merely see the surface.
In line six the "heart, eyes" look "Down all that
glory in the heavens to glean our Saviour." This is the
most significant line in the poem for our study. The word
"all" must not be overlooked. It suggests a sense of
admiration at the unlimited bounty of the autumn scene.
The landscape and skyscape are like harvest field and
storehouse, rich, full, and ripe. The harvest is the
"glory of the heavens." Here the word "glory" means "an
occasion for praise." In the phrase "all that glory in the
heavens," the word "glory" means that external nature is an
occasion for praising Christ in external nature, for it is
in external nature, the "glory of the heavens," that the
poet "gleans our Saviour." The word "gleans" sustains the
harvest image introduced in the title and continued
throughout the entire first stanza. In the context of the
poem, however, what the poet "gleans" is not merely a har
vest of natural beauty in field and sky but a supernatural
harvest as well— Christ, the Savior, as seen manifested in
His redeemed creation. At this point the poem leaves the
purely natural level and rises to the supernatural level.
It is significant that Hopkins gleans not God, not even
simply Christ, but Christ under the aspect of "Saviour."
89
The echo from Jeremiah with which the poem opens, "Summer
ends now," corroborates this idea of Christ considered
specifically as Savior; for Jeremiah stated, "the summer is
ended, and we are not saved." (Jeremiah 8:20) In the Old
Testament Hopkins sees both a people and external nature
longing for a salvation they did not yet have; in the New
Testament he sees Christ, the Savior, Who satisfied the
expectation of both. The phrase "our Saviour" further
suggests that Christ is considered by Hopkins in this
passage with His redemptive work completed. His earthly
life of suffering has ended with death on the cross, and
Christ lives a new life mysteriously in the redeemed uni
verse, especially here in external nature, as part of His
"Mystical Body."
The whole sweep of the autumn scene depicted in the
first quatrain and understood fully in its relationship to
Christ as He still lives mysteriously in the universe gave
the poet a reply "realer and rounder" of Christ's love for
mankind than any merely human lover's look or reply, how
ever expressive, could ever have done. The word "rounder"
besides meaning "fuller" also suggests a continuation of
the harvest image by indicating the roundness of a sack
filled to overflowing with the produce of a harvest.
90
And eyes, heart, what looks, what lips yet gave a
Rapturous love's greeting of realer, of rounder replies?
James Hafley comments in a recent article on the use
of "eyes and heart" in Hopkins' poetry. To him the "eyes
and heart" of the poet represent an intrusion and betray
some distasteful qualities in Hopkins' poetry. Mr. Hafley
writes:
Two qualities mar Hopkins's poetry: the "Hopkins'
voice" and didactic moralizing. The Hopkins' voice
is characterized by the "eyes" that see this world
and the "heart" that yearns for that seen. But the
passive speaker rejects the desires of his heart as
if fearful of experience, preferring innocence to
virtue. Hopkins's moralizing is therefore a ration
alization rather than a genuinely dramatic part of
his poems. The result is an overall tone of femi
nine, self-conscious, masochistic, guilt-ridden
suffering in most of Hopkins's poems.
Such a comment, it seems to me, can be made only if one
fails to realize that the "heart" in Hopkins' poetry is not
simply a center of emotional response, but almost a spir
itual faculty that pierces to the underlying meaning of
things, unlike the "eyes," which merely see the surface.
Far from being "fearful of experience, preferring innocence
to virtue," the speaker in this poem actually seeks the
experience of nature in its fullest, not only superficial,
l4"Hopkins: 'A Little Sickness in the Air,'" Arizona
Quarterly, 20:3 (Autumn 1964), 215-222.
91
significance. Nor is the suggested criticism justified
that "Hopkins's moralizing is therefore a rationalization
rather than a genuinely dramatic part of his poems." For
it is only after external nature has been most carefully
scrutinized that its full meaning becomes evident to the
poet. The insight of Christ-in-nature gained by "eyes and
heart" comes only after the careful scrutiny has been made.
To me there seems to be nothing "feminine, self-conscious,
masochistic [or] guilt-ridden" about the exuberant tone of
the poem which results from such close scrutiny. The tone
is an outgrowth of what the poet has seen and is an organic
part of the poem.
The "azurous hung" hills which majestically surround
the field of stooks are Christ's "world-wielding shoulder/
Majestic— as a stallion stalwart, very-violet-sweet!" The
hills, and Christ personified in them, are both "majestic"
as well as "very-violet-sweet," that is, manifesting His
loving kindness. Christ is presented in this poem as hav
ing both the strength of a stallion and the tenderness of a
violet. In his Journal Hopkins had written, "I do not
think I have ever seen anything more beautiful than the
bluebell I have been looking at. I know the beauty of our
Lord by it. It[s inscape] is [mixed of] strength and
92
grace."I5 In the autumn scene of "Hurrahing in Harvest"
Hopkins saw a mixture of these same qualities.
The repetition of "These things, these things" in line
eleven serves as a summary statement of the things enumer
ated in the first ten lines of the poem and an exclamation
of admiration at the majesty and tenderness of Christ, the
Savior, manifested in them. Redeemed nature is in the
world manifesting its Savior, "and but the beholder/ Want
ing." The word "beholder" suggests more than one who
simply sees a scene and then passes on. It suggests also
one who views closely and carefully what he sees, contem
plating it until the full meaning is grasped. Given this
type of viewer (a "beholder") and "these things" (stooks,
clouds, and hills), the "heart," that is, the innermost
being of the perceptive viewer, "rears wings bold and
bolder." As Robert Boyle has written commenting on this
passage:
The heart, made for immortal beauty and good, . . .
when faced with immortal good . . . is not restrained.
It breaks out with wings, the mounting spirit doing
what it can to go from its dull cage to eternal
good. . . . In "Hurrahing in Harvest" (No. 38), when
his searching eyes and heart find the response of
Christ in His creatures
•^Hopkins, Journal and Papers, p. 199.
93
The heart rears wings bold and bolder
And hurls for him, 0 half hurls earth for him
off under his feet.16
The IMAGERY of "Hurrahing in Harvest" is centered
around the image of external nature, manifesting Christ, as
a harvest to be reaped by the spiritually sensitive and
alert viewer. This basic image is sustained throughout two
quatrains of the octave by such words as "stooks," "wind-
walks," "silk-sack," "meal-drift," "glean," and "rounder."
The harvest in the field is made up of "stooks," piles of
sheaves. The harvest of the clouds in the heavens is
either the harvest in the "fields" with "wind-walks"
between them or the produce of the harvest which is stored
in rows along the "wind-walks." The full richness of this
abundant harvest is underlined by the occasional sack which
overturns and spills its contents across the storehouse
floor.
In the second quatrain the poet rises from the natural
harvest of earth and sky to the supernatural harvest of
Christ as seen in this earthly harvest. So the poet lifts
"heart, eyes/ . . . to glean our Saviour," that is, to
glean the harvest of Christ-in-external-nature.
16Metaphor in Hopkins, pp. 77-78.
In the sestet two images are used: (1) Christ-in-
nature robed in majesty and meekness and (2) the heart of
the beholder soaring as a bird in unrestrained flight to
meet Christ seen in nature. The first image is sustained
throughout lines nine and ten. The hills are Christ's
"world-wielding shoulder," that is, they are the means by
which Christ exercises His power and authority as He might
through a regal staff or scepter. Webster defines "wield"
as "To exercise one's power and authority by means of (a
staff, scepter, etc.)." The shoulder of Christ is
emphasized because it is on Christ's shoulder that the
purple robes of "azurous" mist hang. It is also from His
shoulder that the "silk-sack" clouds of the sky trail. The
scene of Christ seated as the Savior-King of His creation
manifests both His majesty "as a stallion stalwart" and his
kindness "very-violet-sweet." The color of the violet may
further suggest Christ robed in the violet cloak of mockery
in His Passion, a symbol of meekness and forebearance.
(John 19:2) The words sustaining this first image of the
sestet are "azurous," "hung," "hills," "world-wielding,"
"shoulder," "majestic," and "violet."
The second image of the sestet is the image of the
"heart" as a bird soaring ever higher and higher into space,
95
bounding so violently into space that it hurls the earth
back from it in its pursuit of the underlying meaning seen
and grasped in external nature. External nature, "earth,"
then becomes in the image the springboard to Christ, Who is
seen in creation, and specifically in this poem, in
redeemed creation.
The TONE of "Hurrahing in Harvest" is one of exultant,
abounding joy at the recognition of Christ in His redeemed
universe, a universe which has responded to the redemption
and so is a further cause of joy to the poet and, like him,
to the perceptive "beholder." There is a slight shadow of
sorrow in the first line of the poem in the phrase "Summer
ends now," suggesting that there are some who have not
fully responded to Christ in redeemed external nature.
Many scholars have commented on "Hurrahing in Harvest."
In my discussion I have mentioned W. H. Gardner, David A.
Downes, Robert Boyle, Maurice B. McNamee, and James Hafley.
The comments of Gardner and Downes deserve further atten
tion.
Gardner, in speaking of the lines, "I walk, I lift up,
I lift up heart, eyes,/ Down all that glory in the heavens
to glean our Saviour," says:
It would have been possible for Hopkins to arrive
at this metaphysical fusion of God the Word and
96
nature without aid of specific external suggestion;
though that suggestion might have come from a num
ber of very early sources, such as the more spiritual
forms of pantheism. It is most probable, however,
that a direct stimulus came from the Schoolman, Duns
Scotus.17
Gardner, then, sees in "Hurrahing in Harvest" the influence
of the Scotian haecceitas or individuality of things in
their relation to God. "Individuality then is the direc
tion given to natural activities by the haecceitas; it is
the real relation between the creature and God."18
Viewing "Hurrahing in Harvest" from another point of
view, Downes suggests that the poem is a manifestation of
the Ignatian spirit influencing Hopkins' work. Downes
writes:
In the Contemplation for obtaining Love, Ignatius
has the exercitant offer himself entirely to God
with great affection in what is one of the most
moving prayers, which begins, 'Take, 0 Lord, and
receive my liberty, my memory, my understanding,
and all my will, whatsoever I have and possess. . . .'
Hopkins caught the ecstasy of this sort of love for
God in his poem 'Hurrahing in Harvest,1 in the last
part of which he perceives in nature such beautiful
epiphanies of the love of God that it almost puts
him beside himself: [Here the second quatrain and
sestet are quoted]
I have tried to indicate . . . that his vision of
the world was Ignatian, that time and again his
^Gardner, I, 21.
18Gardner, I, 23.
97
poetic art originates in the Exercises, always try
ing to capture the authentic Ignatian spirit. ^
Downes believes that the ideas inculcated through the
Spiritual Exercises of the Jesuit order gave Hopkins'
poetry, here specifically "Hurrahing in Harvest," a
definite coloring.
I have stated previously in this study that I feel
that an original and controlling concept, the concept of
the "Mystical Body of Christ," working within the framework
of the Scotian and Ignatian influences and arising from
them, is present in Hopkins' poetry and when understood
gives his work an added dimension for all his readers. In
keeping with this statement, I feel that the haecceitas of
Scotus is in the poem and that also the Ignatian offering
of everything to Christ is in the poem. However, more than
that, I feel that both are joined in the all-embracing con
cept of the "Mystical Body of Christ." This poem gains by
being read in the wider context of the relation of external
nature to Christ in the concept of the "Mystical Body," as
can be seen from the conclusions which I shall now present
in the remainder of this chapter.
Thus far in discussing "Hurrahing in Harvest" I have
19Downes, pp. 111-112.
98
examined the poem itself very closely and considered the
comments which various scholars have made about it. Now,
attention must be given to Hopkins' prose writings which
treat the same idea as that expressed in "Hurrahing in
Harvest," namely, the close relationship between external
nature and Christ living mysteriously in it after His
redemption of it.
Perhaps nowhere in his prose writings does Hopkins
state more clearly the profound impact that Christ's
redemption had on the universe than he does in this remark:
Suppose God showed us in a vision the whole world
enclosed first in a drop of water, allowing every
thing to be seen in its native colours; then the same
in a drop of Christ's blood, by which everything what
ever was turned to scarlet, keeping nevertheless
mounted in the scarlet its own colour too.20
Hopkins is speaking in this passage of external nature, "the
whole world," by which I mean, as I have stated in my intro
duction, the mineral state as well as plant and non-human
animal life. External nature, implicit in Adam, head and
crown of creation, had fallen in Adam and so needed redemp
tion. In the above quotation Hopkins acknowledges this
fact when he sees "the same [i.e. the whole world or
2°Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 194.
99
external nature] in a drop of Christ's blood." External
nature responded to this redemption by Christ and so can be
used by man in realizing more fully Christ-in-nature. How
ever, since man has a free will, either he can ignore
nature's potential for directing him to Christ or he can,
what is worse, turn nature to evil purposes. In "Hurrahing
in Harvest" Hopkins indicates the great potential for good
in redeemed external nature and invites men to put that
potential to its fullest use by responding properly to
external nature.
In the above quotation Hopkins makes another point
which is worthy of attention. He indicates that external
nature retains its own individuality even after being
redeemed by Christ when he speaks of it, "keeping neverthe
less mounted in the scarlet its own colours too." This
fact is important to remember both here and in the later
discussion of external nature's and man's incorporation
into Christ in the "Mystical Body." By way of answer to
Gardner's suggestion that this individuality or haecceitas
in external nature is a reflection of Scotus' influence on
Hopkins, I say that external nature retains its individual
ity while sharing the life of Christ but that that individ
uality or selfhood finds its ultimate fulfillment in union
100
with Christ in the "Mystical Body." In other words, the
Scotian ideas of haecceitas which obviously did influence
Hopkins1 thinking were carried farther and put to their
fullest use when related to the concept of the "Mystical
Body of Christ." For in the "Mystical Body of Christ" the
individuality of both external nature and man is retained
intact even while it is united with Christ. Hopkins indi
cated this truth when he wrote:
And God in forma servi rests in servo, that is/
Christ as a solid in his member as a hollow or shell,
both things being the image of God; which can only
be perfectly when the member is in all things con
formed to Christ. This too best brings out the
nature of man himself, as the lettering on a sail or
device upon a flag are best seen when it fills.2- * -
In this quotation Hopkins is speaking primarily of Christ
indwelling in man; but, since man is the head of creation,
His indwelling exists also in external nature on its level
of being.
Downes has stated that it was because of the influence
of the Ignatian spirit in Hopkins' life that he offered
external nature to Christ. This is true. But in the wider
scope that the concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ"
gave his poetry Hopkins could make this offering in the
21Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 195.
101
knowledge that Christ had redeemed external nature and
actually lived in it in an intimate way as Savior.
The principal conclusion which can be drawn from this
study of Hopkins' "Hurrahing in Harvest" is that for him
external nature in its redeemed state mirrors Christ, the
Savior, still living on mystically in the universe, even
in mineral, plant, and non-human animal states. External
nature has a twofold function: (1) In its inner vitality
it mirrors Christ, its Savior, and (2) it has the poten
tial of serving as an instrument which can lead men to a
closer, because more fully understood, union with Christ.
In the discussion of external nature's relation to the
"Mystical Body of Christ" in this chapter I have considered
the fact of external nature's inner vitality and its basic
role as an instrument which can be used to lead men to
Christ. In my discussion of "God's Grandeur" I shall treat
the source of external nature's inner vitality and the force
which keeps external nature true, in its redeemed state, to
its nature as an instrument leading men to Christ.
Thus far in this study I have presented a general
consideration of the basic ideas in the concept of the
"Mystical Body of Christ" in "Barnfloor and Winepress." In
"Hurrahing in Harvest" I have indicated the relation of
external nature to the concept of the ’ ’ Mystical Body of
Christ." Now, I turn to "As Kingfishers Catch Fire,
Dragonflies Draw Flame," which is a transitional poem
in this study, serving as a bridge from the study of
external nature to the study of man in the relations of
external nature and man to the concept of the "Mystical
Body of Christ."
CHAPTER III
"AS KINGFISHERS CATCH FIRE, DRAGONFLIES DRAW FLAME"
Although the manuscript for "As Kingfishers Catch
Fire, Dragonflies Draw Flame" is undated, I place it in
the year 1881, following the chronology of Bridges and
Gardner. "Inversnaid" (No. 56) is dated September 28,
18 81, in the Bridges-Gardner edition of the Poems, and
"Ribblesdale" (No. 58) is dated 1882. "As Kingfishers
Catch Fire, Dragonflies Draw Flame" (No. 57) falls between
the two poems, and so the date 1881 seems logical. The
date 1881 is further suggested as a possibility by the
strong resemblance between the conclusion of Hopkins' ser
mon of May 15, 1881, and the concluding lines of "As
Kingfishers Catch Fire, Dragonflies Draw Flame."
"As Kingfishers Catch Fire, Dragonflies Draw Flame"
suggests itself for consideration at this point in this
study, for it is a transitional poem between the study of
external nature and man in relation to the concept of the
"Mystical Body of Christ." The octave of the poem deals
103
104 '
with external nature; the sestet deals with man. As I
have indicated in my introduction, Christopher Devlin
notes the shift of Hopkins' interest from external
nature to man after his ordination in September, 1877:
But after his ordination to the priesthood his
interest shifted increasingly from the presence
of God's design or inscape (that is, Christ) in
inanimate nature to the working-out of that design
by stress and instress— in the minds and wills of
men. 1
As Kingfishers Catch Fire, Dragonflies Draw Flame
As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung
bell's
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves— goes itself; myself it speaks and spells;
Crying What I do is me: for that I came.
I say more: the just man justices;
Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces;
Acts, in God's eye what in God's eye he is--
Christ— for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men's faces.
The SUBJECT MATTER of this poem is the distinctively
unique activity of "each mortal thing," whether God-made
or man-made, natural or supernatural.
Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 109.
105 :
The THEME of the poem is that the distinctively
unique activity of "each mortal thing," whether God-
made or man-made, natural or supernatural, reveals its
selfhood or individuality and in doing so bears witness
not only to God, its Creator, but also to Christ, its
Savior.
The EXTERNAL STRUCTURE of "As Kingfishers Catch Fire,
Dragonflies Draw Flame" is that of a Petrarchan sonnet
composed of an octave of two quatrains rhyming abbaabba
and a sestet rhyming cdcdcd.
The INTERNAL STRUCTURE of this sonnet follows closely
the external divisions of the poem. The first quatrain
presents the unique activity of mortal things which are
both God-made (bird, insect, and stone) and man-made (harp-
string and bell). There is a descending order of impor
tance in the presentation of the various things enumerated
in the first quatrain. Each creature singled out for notice
has its own proper activity, and it is this activity which
commands attention.
t /
As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung
bell's
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name.
106 |
The second quatrain's principal thought begins with
the activity of the particular, concrete, mortal thing and
rises to a consideration of the one thing all have in com
mon, "Each mortal thing does one thing and the same." What
all the things listed in the first quatrain share is the
fact that each "Deals out that being indoors each one
dwells," that is, it "Selves— goes itself." In its unique
activity each thing reveals its nature, the principle of all
its activities. Each individual thing in creation exult-
ingly proclaims, "Myself . . ./ Crying What I do is me:
for that I came." Each creature, no matter how insignifi
cant, has a contribution to make to the fullness of the
universe, a contribution which no other thing, even of the
same species, can make in precisely the same way. As Jean
Mouroux has said in his book, The Meaning of Man:
Creation does not stand fixed in dead immobility; it
is living and active, it presses tensely toward its
end. It is a movement and an aspiration to God.
Every creature, even the humblest, is made at once
to give glory to God and to attain its own perfec
tion: two ends, but one reality. For God calls all
things to existence, to life, to activity; not from
without, but from within; not by uttering a word, but
by forming beings, endowing them with a structure and
orientation. . . . Every creature answers the call.
They yield to the vital impulse that sweeps them
along, they give free way to their abounding energies,
and, in this happy obedience, the thing they seek
is their own fulfillment and their own perfection:
which for the water is to flow, for the rose
107'
to bloom, for the bird to utter song. . . . By all
this activity Nature praises God, since her activ
ity is a call and desire for God: and thus in virtue
of its tendency to its own perfection the whole
world is one immense aspiration to God.2
Moving on to the sestet of this sonnet Hopkins uses an
a fortiori argument to drive home his point, rising at the
i
same time to the supernatural level where all creation findd
/ #
its fulfillment in man, the crown of creation. "I say more:
the just man justices." The poet says that great and
admirable as is the uniqueness of each individual creature
on the natural levels of God-made and man-made creation, it
is all surpassed on the supernatural level by man himself,
here specifically "the just man" who "justices." This "just
man" is to be understood, as I have indicated in the intro
duction to this study, as one who lives out in his life the
life of Christ given in sanctifying grace at Baptism.
(Romans 1:17) "The just man"
/ / ,
Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces; |
Acts/ in God' s eye what in God1 s eye he is— 1
Christ.
It is the grace of Christ, which I shall discuss at length
in the section dealing with the diction of the poem, that
enables the man who has a new nature by grace to act
t
^(New York, 1948), p. 24.
108 1
according to that nature and produce Christ-like acts.
These acts of the just man are made possible by his union
with Christ as a member of the "Mystical Body of Christ," a
union effected by Baptism. So complete is the identifica
tion of each individual member of the "Mystical Body" with
Christ that Hopkins does not hesitate to say that the just
3
man i£ Christ. Then, pursuing the idea of each member's
close relationship with Christ in the "Mystical Body,"
Hopkins says in poetic form what he had said in his sermon
of May 15, 1881, namely, that Christ, Who physically died
on Calvary but now lives mystically or mysteriously in the
world in His members, acts through them,
— for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the father through the features of men's faces.
Christ no longer lives physically in the world, it is true,
Hopkins says, but Christ does live mysteriously in His mem
bers and through them still pleases His heavenly Father.
3Boyle, Metaphor in Hopkins, p. 104: "In No. 57,
Hopkins in the octet describes various creatures acting
out fully their natural acts, the full expression of their
being. They speak themselves; but I (i.e., the just man)
speak more than myself— I say, in my just act, both myself
and Christ, 'new self and nobler me.' In the sestet
Hopkins states that the just man . . . exercises the very
act of justice and literally (not analogously) is Christ,
for the divine life of Christ is acting in him." [Italics
mine]
iosTI
Perhaps the most outstanding characteristic of the !
DICTION of this poem is the use of verbs to present the
unceasing activity of creation: "catch,” "draw," "ring,"
i
"tells," "fling," "selves," "justices," "acts," and "plays."
In each case, however, the activity is unique. Hopkins had !
i
written in his Journal during August, 1870, "Observe that
motion multiplies inscape only when inscape is discovered.1,4
In this poem Hopkins seems to have caught the inscape of
Christ in creation's unceasing activity.
In the first line of the poem a distinction is made
between the activity of the kingfisher and that of the
dragonfly. As Gardner says, "... whereas the kingfisher
darts and is gone, the dragonfly draws its zig-zag flight
less rapidly across our vision."5 In the following clause,
"As tumbled over rim in roundy wells/ Stones ring," the
word "roundy" suggests the playful quality that would be
!
I
associated with a child tumbling stones into a well to hear 1
|
the ringing sound they would make. The words "tumbled over":
and "roundy" give a playful overtone to the second line of
the poem which seems to spread like the rings of the water
to the activities of all the things mentioned in the first
4Hopkins, Journals and Papers, p. 199.
5
Gardner, I, 316.
quatrain. This playful quality of the first quatrain is
reflected later in the twelfth line of the poem, "... for
Christ plays in ten thousand places." This reference to
Christ playing or being reflected® in external nature as
well as in man is found in Hopkins' prose writings also.
On December 8, 1881, Hopkins wrote, "All things therefore
are charged with love, are charged with God and if we know
how to touch them give off sparks and take fire, yield drops
and flow, ring and tell of him."7 The word "ring" in the
clause being considered, "As tumbled over rim in roundy
wells/ Stones ring," then, suggests several activities: the
sound of the stone as it hits the water, the rings the
stone makes in the water,® and the reflection of God in the
activity of external nature. The playful, joyous quality of
the ringing stones is also found in the activity of the
harp whose "plucked string tells" of its happiness in
I
®Selma J. Cohen, "Hopkins' 'As Kingfishers Catch Fire', 'j
Modern Language Quarterly, xi (June, 1950), 203. Miss
Cohen suggests that the phrase "plays on" might be under
stood as "reflected on" in the sense that light "plays on"
water or a surface.
7
Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 195.
®Peters, G. M. Hopkins: A Critical Study, p. 159.
"'Ring' should be taken not only to mean 'make a noise'
but also 'make rings'."
activity, and, even more so, in the "bell's bow," the curved
interior of the cup, which with its clapper as a tongue
flings out its joyful song as a mouth open in singing. The
word "tells" in the clause, "like each tucked string tells,”
is operating not only on the natural level where it means i
to "proclaim, broadcast or announce, that is, sound out
clearly,but also on the supernatural level of proclaim
ing Christ in the activity of external nature. For as I
i
have just indicated Hopkins tells us, "All things therefore
are charged with God and if we know how to touch them . . .
tell of him."-*-® In the following clause, "each hung bell's/
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name," the
word "name" is used to mean "nature." In the Old Testament
one's name signified his nature; so God's name, Yahweh,
meaning "I am Who am," signified His nature as being eter
nal. In this poem the activity of each mortal thing,
which can be seen, tells us of its inner nature, which
cannot be seen.
In the first line of the second quatrain, "Each mortalj
thing does one thing and the same," Hopkins uses the word
9
R. V. Schoder, S. J., "Interpretive Glossary," m
Tmmortal Diamond, ed. Norman Weyand, S. J., p. 210. [
^Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 195.
112
"mortal" to describe all the things mentioned in the first
quatrain: kingfishers, dragonflies, stones, harpstring, and
bell. All are "mortal," that is, destined to die. The
implicit contrast is with the just man of the sestet who,
in living the life of Christ, in some sense is immortal.
Christ lives both in His redeemed, mortal universe, exter- !
nal nature, and in redeemed man, who as simply human is
mortal but as he shares the nature of Christ by grace is
immortal. The second line of the second quatrain is some
what difficult to understand because there is an ellipsis,
as there frequently is in Hopkins, of the relative pronoun.
With this relative pronoun inserted the line would read,
"Deals out that being [that] indoors each one dwells." The
line means that "each mortal thing" in external nature
"deals out," or displays outwardly in its activity what is
its inner nature. The word "selves" in line seven, while it
develops further the important idea presented in the previ-
i
ous line, that each mortal thing acts out the selfhood
latent in its nature simply by existing, also calls atten
tion to itself as a coinage of Hopkins. Ordinarily the
word "self" is used as an adjective or a noun. Here
Hopkins uses it as a verb and in doing so calls special
attention to the important idea the word is used to convey.
113
The word "spells" in the next clause, meaning "utters,
declares, tells," is joined by alliteration to the word
"speaks," and both words together emphasize the notion of
external nature manifesting its nature in activity. The
emphasis placed on the words "what" and "do" in the last
line of the octave further accentuates the importance of
each mortal thing's activity. Hopkins' point of emphasis
throughout the octave is on the activity of the things
rather than on the things themselves. Hopkins gives poetic
formulation to the philosophical axiom "agere sequitur
esse," that is, "activity follows from a thing's inner
being." In "As Kingfishers Catch Fire, Dragonflies Draw
Flame" the activities of "each mortal thing" also manifest
Christ acting in them in their redeemed state. As Jean
Mouroux has said:
Every creature . . . yield[s] to the vital impulse
that sweeps them along, they give free way to their
abounding energies, and, in this happy obedience,
the thing they seek is their own fulfillment and
their own perfection: which for the water is to flow,
for the rose to bloom, for the bird to utter song. .
. . By all this activity Nature praises God: and
thus in virtue of its tendency to its own perfection
the whole world is one immense aspiration to God.H
In the first line of the sestet the word "I" may mean
either the speaker in the poem or the just man. The accent
l^The Meaning of Man, p. 24.
114^
|
* 1
mark on the word "I" serves to indicate the transition j
being made in the poem from a consideration of external
nature in the octave to man, and more specifically, the
just man in the sestet. Man, like external nature, will
t
also manifest his inner nature in his activity. "I say
/ J
more.” Man, the crown of creation and the primary object :
of Christ's redemption, "says more1 1 because he not only
manifests Christ reflected in creation as external nature
does, but also actually is, in some mysterious way, identi
fied with Christ in his activities. The just man is both
himself and Christ and so says more than external nature,
which is only, despite its faint reflection of Christ,
itself. Continuing his emphasis on the activity of a being
as indicating its nature, Hopkins says, "the just man jus
tices .” The words "just" and "justices" must be understood
to mean a man living in union with Christ by grace in the
j
"Mystical Body," and manifesting that inner, hidden union j
|
in his external, visible actions. Hopkins' definition of \
grace not only clarifies the meaning of "justices" but pre- ;
pares the way for an understanding of the final lines of the
poem. In his notes on the Spiritual Exercises Hopkins said :
that grace operative in the soul might be explained in this
way:
It is as if a man said: That is Christ playing at j
me and me playing at Christ; only that it is no
play but truth. That is Christ being me and me being
Christ.12
The meaning of the word "grace" in the poem's next line is '
clear from Hopkins' own words. Once the relationship of
I
j
grace and justice is understood, the remainder of the poem j
is more easily grasped, although perhaps hard to accept in
its complete identification of Christ and His members.
"Justice" is the state that results in the soul of the just j
man once he has received "grace," more specifically sancti
fying grace, at his baptism when he is fully constituted a
member of the "Mystical Body of Christ." In brief, "jus
tice" is the result; "grace" is its cause. Being justified
by reason of grace the just man has a new nature that enables
him to live a new life. From this new nature come all the
actions of the just man so that his just actions are the
outward manifestations of his new nature. "The just man
justices;/ Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces."
"Christ" spoken of in line twelve is the mystical
Christ, not the physical Christ. The physical Christ cannot
be multiplied in "ten thousand places" and still survive.
i
Therefore, I cannot agree with Geoffrey H. Hartman when he j
I
^Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 154. j
116
writes, commenting on "As Kingfishers Catch Fire, Dragon
flies Draw Flame":
Christ, a corporeal Christ, Ipse, is for Hopkins
the manifest of man, as ringing is of the bell, fire
of kingfishers, hurl and gliding of the windhover.
We perceive the great identity established in the
poems of Hopkins, an identity of all things, all mor
tal things, in resilience, infinite individuality,
God. But this identity, close to the central prin
ciple of Aristotlelian philosophy, and expressed
in the first part of "That Nature is a Heraclitean
Fire," is then transcended by a further identity,
exclusive to man, in resilience, highest pitch of
self, Christ, hence— Resurrection. . . .
Therefore in Hopkins, against tradition, Christ
the human and spiritual intermediary between man and
God becomes Christ the supreme physical revelation
and physical compulsion. This could be expressed
better by saying that Hopkins views the world
through the actual body of Christ, instead of through
His spiritual body, which is the Church.13
I cannot agree with Hartman because it seems to me that in
this poem Hopkins clearly speaks of the thousands of mem
bers of Christ incorporated into His "Mystical Body," the
Catholic Church, an incorporation received at Baptism and
enabling them to be living and acting Christs.
Christ was himself but one and lived and died but
once; but the Holy Ghost makes every Christian
another Christ; lives a million lives in every age;
l^The Unmediated Vision; An Interpretation of
Wordsworth, Hopkins, Rilke, and Valery (New Haven, 19 54),
pp. 60-67.
is the courage of the martyrs, the wisdom of the
doctors, the purity of the virgins. [Italics i
mine]14
The just man in action is Christ in action because the just
man by grace shares the nature of Christ Himself. In "As
i
Kingfishers Catch Fire, Dragonflies Draw Flame" the emphasis
is not on the ultimate source of the supernatural vitality
I
in the members of the "Mystical Body of Christ," that is,
the Holy Ghost, but simply on the fact that they have this
new nature by grace which allows them to be in their
actions "AfterChrists." "The just man"
Actsr in God's eye what in God's eye he is —
Christ— for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men's faces.
In the study of this poem's IMAGERY two comparisons are
used in the octave to underline the basic truth presented
there, namely, that the external activity of every mortal
thing manifests to the world its inner nature. The two
i
comparisons are of the voice proclaiming the inner thoughts j
i
and the person emerging from a home indicating something of
the home's inner life. Of these two comparisons, the first
is more important and sustained at greater length.
The image of the voice speaking the inner thoughts of
l^Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 100.
118
man is sustained by such words as "tells," "tongue,"
"speaks," "spells," and "crying." This image is begun in
the last two lines of the first quatrain and resumed in the
last two lines of the octave.
In the second image of the octave, which appears only
in line six, the person emerging from his home is compared
to the activity of "each mortal thing" coming out from its
inner nature. The words which convey this comparison are
"being," "indoors," "each one," and "dwells."
The sustained image in the poem's sestet is a metaphor
in which the just man is identified with Christ. The source
of the just man's activity is grace. The just man living
with the new nature that grace gives him multiplies Christ
"in ten thousand places" not only for his fellow men to see
but also for his heavenly Father to see.
The TONE of this poem is one of subdued wonder at the
many-faceted activity of all things, God-made and man-made, i
]
natural and supernatural. This many-faceted activity
mirrors ultimately not only its own individual activity but i
also the redemptive activity of Christ in all creation. The
/ *
octave rises to a crescendo in the line, "Crying What I do
is me: for that I came." In the sestet this wonder is
increased at the thought of man's potential for activity not
119 !
!
merely human but also divine. However, as man is the crown j
I
j
of all lower creation, which he implicitly contains, the
wonder engendered in the sestet flows back to the octave;_
the wonder at man's reflection of Christ by grace also
becomes the wonder at external nature's reflection of |
i
Christ. 1
From this analysis one conclusion can be drawn, name
ly, that in "As Kingfishers Catch Fire, Dragonflies Draw
Flame” Hopkins sees all creation manifesting its inner
nature by its outward activity. In manifesting their inner
natures both external nature and man proclaim their self
hood and individuality. This selfhood and individuality is
not lost because it is united to Christ in His "Mystical
Body." It is rather brought to its highest perfection.
Christ is in external nature as He is in the just man, as
wind is in a sail. As the wind makes visible the otherwise
hidden emblem or insignia, so Christ makes visible by His i
i
i
activity in all things their otherwise latent and hidden
natures.
In the next analysis full attention will be given to
the just man, specifically to see how this identification
with Christ presented in "As Kingfishers Catch Fire, Dragon+
flies Draw Flame" affects his daily actions.
CHAPTER IV
"ST. ALPHONSUS RODRIGUEZ"
j
"The just man justices;/ Keeps grace; that keeps all
his goings graces." This "just man" of whom Hopkins wrote
in "As Kingfishers Catch Fire, Dragonflies Draw Flame" has
many faces. He may be a blacksmith, "Felix Randall"
(No. 53); he may be a soldier, "The Soldier" (No. 63); he
may be just a common workman, "Tom's Garland" (No. 66); or
a simple farmer, "Harry Ploughman" (No. 67). All these just
men, as Hopkins sees them, live out their lives as "After-
Christs," sharing the life of Christ as members of His
"Mystical Body," the Catholic Church. This chapter concen
trates on one outstanding example of the "just man" to whom ;
Hopkins gave his poetic attention, namely, "St. Alphonsus
I
Rodriguez" (No. 73). St. Alphonsus was, in Hopkins' own
words, "A laybrother of Our Order, who for 40 years acted
as hall porter to the College of Palma in Majorca; he was,
it is believed, much favoured by God with heavenly light and!
i
120
121
much persecuted by evil spirits."! St. Alphonsus was, in
short, a "just man" who lived a humble, hidden life. In
doing so, however, he lived his life as an "AfterChrist," a
member of the "Mystical Body of Christ."
2
"St. Alphonsus Rodriguez" was written in 1888, the ;
I
year before Hopkins died. The poem sustains an interest in !
the concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ" in its various
aspects, which began with "Barnfloor and Winepress" (1865),
continued through "Hurrahing in Harvest" (1877), and "As
Kingfishers Catch Fire, Dragonflies Draw Flame" (1881), and
still persisted in 1888, as a close analysis of "St.
Alphonsus Rodriguez" will show.
Scholars have indicated in various studies that "The
Windhover," certainly one of Hopkins' most discussed poems,
had echoes in his later poetry, at least of its basic idea.
Robert Boyle suggests, for example, that both "As King
fishers Catch Fire, Dragonflies Draw Flame" and "The j
Soldier" express essentially the same basic thought as "The
W i n d h o v e r . w. H. Gardner suggests that the poem we are
^Hopkins, Letters to Bridges, p. 29 3.
2Poems, p. 252.
^Metaphor in Hopkins, pp. 104-105.
122
now considering, "St. Alphonsus Rodriguez," is a pendant j
to "The Windhover." Gardner states, "Like The Windhover
the poem ["St. Alphonsus Rodriguez"] deals (explicitly this
time) with the 'unseen war within the heroic breast' of the
humble, plodding servant of Christ."^ It seems to me that
the final line of "The Windhover," "Fall, gall themselves,
and gash gold vermillion," and the second line of "St.
Alphonsus Rodriguez," "And those strokes once that gashed
flesh and galled shield," give some support to the asser
tion that the poems are related to some extent.
Since there does seem to be some relationship between
the basic ideas of "The Windhover" and those of "St.
Alphonsus Rodriguez," a relationship to which I refer later,
it will be helpful to state briefly the subject matter and
the theme of "The Windhover" as I understand them before
beginning my analysis of "St. Alphonsus Rodriguez."
The subject matter of "The Windhover" is the windhover
symbolizing the obvious "achieve" and "mastery" of brute
creation in contrast with the hidden sacrifices, inconveni
ences, and tedium of the just man's daily life.
The theme of "The Windhover" is that the sacrifices,
the inconveniences, and the tedium of the just man's daily
^Gardner, I, 33.
123 1
life can be made unbelievably valuable, "a billion/ Times
told lovelier," even though they seem to lack the obvious
"achieve" and "mastery" of brute creation, provided these
actions are done in union with and submission to Christ, Our
Lord. In short, the spectacular flight of the windhover cab
i
be matched and surpassed by the most routine actions of the
just man because the just man lives and acts in union with
Christ as a member of His "Mystical Body."
"The Windhover," then, as I understand it, gives
expression to a general truth which is particularized in
"St. Alphonsus Rodriguez." As Gardner states:
That two verbs in the last line of The Windhover
should be repeated at the beginning of In Honour of
St. Alphonsus Rodriguez (1888) shows that his sonnet
is meant to exemplify, in the life of a particular
saint, the moral generalization of the earlier poem.
Honour "flashed off exploit" links the particular
activity of the falcon to that of the martyr, while
"gashed flesh or galled shield" indicate the visible
and trumpeted heroism of the Christian martyrs whose
names are household words. This Alfonso, however,
earned his canonization by the sheer plod of having |
"for 40 years acted as hall porter to the College of |
Palma in Majorca" and having overcome his desolations
with exquisite fortitude.5
With the link between "The Windhover" and "St. Alphonsus
Rodriguez" established, I turn now to the analysis of "St.
Alphonsus Rodriguez" to support the above contention, and toi
indicate its relation to the concept of the "Mystical Body ■
^Gardner, II, 184.
124
of Christ."
In Honour of St. Alphonsus Rodriguez
Laybrother of the Society of Jesus
Honour is flashed off exploit, so we say;
And those strokes once that gashed flesh or galled shield
Should tongue that time now, trumpet now that field,
And, on the fighter, forge his glorious day.
On Christ they do and on the martyr may?
But be the war within, the brand we wield
Unseen, the heroic breast not outward-steeled,
Earth hears no hurtle then from fiercest fray.
Yet God (that hews mountain and continent,
Earth, all, out; who, with trickling increment.
Veins violets and tall trees makes more and more)
Could crowd career with conquest while there went
Those years and years by of world without event
That in Majorca Alfonso watched the door.
The SUBJECT MATTER of "St. Alphonsus Rodriguez" is St.
Alphonsus Rodriguez symbolizing the sacrifices of a tedious,
routine, monotonous life so often the lot of the just man.
The THEME of the poem is that the sacrifices of a
routine, monotonous, and tedious life so often the daily lot
of the just man are heroic and laudable when these actions I
i
are done in union with Christ living mysteriously in him
|
in the world. The recognition of this truth by the just man
should make it easier for him to bear the apparently
unrewarded sacrifices of his hidden life.
The EXTERNAL STRUCTURE of "St. Alphonsus Rodriguez" is
basically that of a Petrarchan sonnet. The octave follows
the rhyme scheme abbaabba and the sestet follows the rhyme
scheme ccdccd. The rhyme scheme of the sestet serves the
purpose of blending the long aside in parentheses "(that
hews mountain and continent,/ Earth, all, out; who, with
trickling increment,/ Veins violets and tall trees makes
more and more)" with the rest of the sestet. The aside is
needed to specify under what aspect God is being spoken of,
yet it must not form so definite a break that the rest of
the sestet is separated from it. So the aside effect of
the parenthetical statement is balanced off and made an
organic part of the poem by the interlocking rhyme scheme
of ccdccd.
The INTERNAL STRUCTURE of the poem follows closely its
external division into the two quatrains of the octave and
the sestet. The poem begins by expressing the recognition
which all men give to the heroic deed which shines before
their eyes, "Honour is flashed off exploit, so we say."
This opening line establishes the point of view expressed
in the first quatrain of the world ever ready to accept the
cliche or catch phrase, "so we say." The opening generali
zation that "Honour is flashed off exploit" is followed by
the example of a specific exploit, namely, courageous
action of a soldier in battle.
And those strokes once that gashed flesh or galled
shield
Should tongue that time now, trumpet now that field,
And, on the fighter, forge his glorious day.
The military hero's scarred flesh and battered weapon
should command men's respect and admiration, and, as a
|
rule, they do.
i
In the second quatrain, with the opening words "On
Christ they do and on the martyr may," the poem moves from
the level of natural combat to the level of supernatural
combat. The contrast between the words "do" and "may"
must be propetly understood. Christ is acknowledged by men,
even men of the world, as a hero Who has suffered the scars
of battle for His cause. He has the bruised and "gashed"
flesh of the heroic warrior to prove his valor. Many Chris
tian martyrs also bear in their bodies the scars of battle
for Christ. But some men may bear no physical scars to
prove their heroic valor in battle, and nonetheless are
i
truly martyrs, witnesses to Christ with their lives.
But be the war within, the brand we wield
Unseen, the heroic breast not outward-steeled,
Earth hears no hurtle then from fiercest fray.
Martyrs in the full sense, that is, just men who physically
died for Christ so they could live spiritually with Him, are
comparatively rare even among the followers of Christ, just
as military heroes are relatively rare in a natural society
Much more common in the Church, the "Mystical Body of
Christ," are those who live hidden lives, but in their
hidden lives fight just as fiercely as, and perhaps more
than, those whose exploits are seen. These men are martyrs
witnesses to Christ, but go unobserved and, therefore,
unadmired by worldly men whose basis for praise is summed
up in the catch phrase, "Honour is flashed off exploit."
"Yet God," and the point of view clearly switches to
the supernatural level,
Yet God (that hews mountain and continent,
Earth, all, out; who, with trickling increment,
Veins violets and tall trees makes more and more)
Could crowd career with conquest while there went
Those years and years by of world without event
That in Majorca Alfonso watched the door.
What the world might miss in its eagerness for "exploit,"
God does not miss. The suggestion is very strong in the
poem that the God Who "Could crowd career with conquest" of
a hidden kind, did crowd the humble career of St. Alphonsus
Rodriguez with conquest although to the world he simply
"watched the door." Honor by God is also flashed off the
humdrum and tedious routine of the just man's daily activi
ties. In Christ's eyes, and the eyes of those who are
sensitive to the underlying meaning of men's seemingly
128
insignificant actions, the lowly role of porter can be just
as glorious as the exploits of a military hero, although
that glory is hidden from the world's notice. Hopkins had
written in "As Kingfishers Catch Fire, Dragonflies Draw
Flame," that "the just man justices;/. . .
i
Acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is—
Christ— for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men's faces.
If we take the word "plays" in this context as meaning
"plays on" the surface of something such as water, we can
understand the world's catch phrase, "Honour is flashed off
exploit," in the deeper supernatural sense of Christ play
ing on men's lives in their various activities, drawing
from them honor and glory as flame is drawn from a receptive
surface.® It seems to me that Hopkins is attempting to
interpret in a supernatural sense the natural catch phrase
with which the poem opens and so give it a deeper meaning b^
i
the poem's end. It is true, he seems to say, that "Honour
is flashed off exploit"; but it is true in a much deeper
®Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 303; see
note 2 to page 185. "though he lived it. . . . In MS
'played' was substituted for 'lived', then crossed out and
•lived' restored." It seems that when Hopkins wrote
"Christ plays in . . ." he might have meant "Christ lives
in . . ." thus strengthening the notion of Christ living
in both man and external nature.
129 |
sense than the man of the world ordinarily thinks it is.
The meaning of the parenthetical statement in lines
nine, ten, and eleven is that God, Who is capable of the
gigantic task of creating the monumental aspects of the
universe, obviously requiring great power, is also capable
j
i
of the smaller task of sustaining the delicate aspects of 1
the universe once they have been brought into being. With
the God of St. Alphonsus, Who knows the value of the great
and the small, the seemingly insignificant actions of the
just man, a new creation in grace, can be fully as valuable
as the obviously great and readily laudable actions of
great spiritual courage, such as martyrdom.
The DICTION of this poem requires close study. The
first line that should be noticed in a reading of the poem
is "Laybrother of the Society of Jesus," which appears in
the poem's full title. The word "Laybrother" immediately
calls the reader's attention to the particular aspect
)
stressed in St. Alphonsus Rodriguez's life. A laybrother
is one who takes care of the material needs of a religious
community. He is not ordained to the Priesthood and
generally does the hidden and menial, although necessary,
chores in a community house, and thus frees the priests for
more immediately and obviously priestly duties. The
130 |
i
i
particular lay brother who is the subject of this poem is
!
also a canonized saint and, therefore, according to Hopkins';
understanding of the term, a just man. This poem, then, as ,
i
can be seen from its full title, is meant to honor in a
Christian sense a just man whose only apparent claim to
I
j
sanctity was that he did well the humble, hidden, routine
chores assigned to him. Christian honor can be given only
when one realizes that St. Alphonsus' daily tasks were done
as a just man, that is, an "AfterChrist," a living member
of the "Mystical Body of Christ.” The implication of the
poem is that what is true of St. Alphonsus is equally true
of every just man, and so although he cannot expect the
world, which flashes its honor only off exploit, to acknowl
edge his true worth, he can expect and will receive the
honor of Christ Who sees in him a living member of His own
Body.
In a letter to Robert Bridges, Hopkins comments on the i
phrase, "so we say," in the poem's opening line. "But 'so
we say' is just what I have to say and want to say. . . . I :
mean 'this is what we commonly say, but we are wrong'."7
The meaning of the line, then, is that in the common
i
7Hopkins, Letters to Bridges, p. 297. j
131
estimation of men honor is given only to exploit, but that
men are wrong in this common estimation. As I have indi
cated above, the suggestion at the very outset of the poem
is that there is a great contrast between the way men of
the world commonly evaluate an action and the way in which
Christ or the Christian evaluates it. An "exploit," an
heroic act, an external manifestation of courage is needed
for the world's approval; such an obvious act is not needed
for Christ, Who sees men's hearts. The word "exploit" is
derived from the Latin words ex {"out of" or "from") and
plicare ("to unfold"). This root meaning of the word gives
us a basis for associating the external manifestation of
courage, as "exploit" is generally taken to mean, with the
slow growth and gradual development suggested by the phrase
"trickling increment/ Veins violets" in the sestet. The
word "exploit" has within it the seed of explaining the
opening catch phrase in a full, Christian way. That is,
the slow, gradual unfolding of the just man's true inner
life through hidden acts is just as much a true "exploit"
as the flashy "exploit" the world admires.
Exactly what sort of exploit worldly men admire is
presented in the following lines:
132 :
And those strokes once that gashed flesh or galled shield
Should tongue that time now, trumpet now that field
And, on the fighter, forge his glorious day.
Heroic action in battle commands the world's honor and
glory. The choice of the word "strokes" may at first cause
the reader some difficulty. "The strokes . . . should
tongue that time now, trumpet now that field,/ and . . . j
forge his glorious day." These "strokes" are not only
injuries to flesh and weapon, but also are the creative
strokes of the human artist carving out or creating a visi
ble monument for posterity to see and admire. I shall
further support this second reading of the word "strokes"
in discussing line nine. These humanly creative "strokes"
effecting human monuments for posterity should celebrate
the time, "should tongue that time now," the place, "trumpet
now that field," and the hero, "on the fighter, forge his
glorious day." The monument produced for men's admiration
is the hero himself, product of an encounter with another j
i
man. This creative action of the human artist or creator
in creating a war hero is contrasted with the creative actioji
of the divine artist or Creator in the sestet Who creates
His "hero," the just man.
The raw material of the human monument on which the
artist's "strokes" have "forged his glorious day" are flesh
133 |
and shield. I have indicated above that the words "gashed"j
and "galled" in the second line of this poem tend to
associate it with the final line of "The Windhover," namely,.
"Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion." However,
the words "gashed" and "galled" in "St. Alphonsus
Rodriguez" do not have any sense of identification with j
Christ's suffering and death.® In "The Windhover" the
words "gashed" and "galled" are associated with Christ's
Passion and Death, as suggested by Edward A. Kopper, Jr.,
when he writes:
The last line of Hopkins' "The Windhover"— "Fall,
gall . . . gash gold-vermillion"— suggests with a
sequence too precise to be merely coincidental
three events surrounding Christ's death. The Savior,
of course "fell" three times, was given "gall" to
drink by his executioners, and, after His death,
suffered His side to be "gashed" by the spear of the
O
°There is, however, an identification between Christ
offering His life for others and the heroic soldier of "The
Soldier" {No. 63).
i
I
Mark Christ our King. He knows war, served this
soldiering through;
He of all can reeve a rope best. There he hides in
bliss
Now, seeing somewhere some man do all that he can do,
For love he leans forth, needs his neck must fall on,
kiss,
And cry '0 Christ-done deedl So God-made-flesh does
too:
Were I come o'er again' cries Christ 'it should be
this'.
134n
Roman soldier. From the wound there flowed both
water and blood, an image easily poeticized by the
terms "gold-vermillion." The poem's theme is in
part beauty following upon strife, and it is not
surprising that Hopkins, the priest, would describe
the experience in terms of Christ's suffering and
(anticipated) resurrection.^
In the first quatrain of "St. Alphonsus Rodriguez" the
words "gashed" and "galled" exhaust their meaning on the
natural level of heroic act, as I read the poem.
It is not until the second quatrain of the octave that
the poem rises to the supernatural level where Christ and
the Christian martyr, a witness to Christ by suffering and
death, are introduced:
On Christ they do and on the martyr may;
But be the war within, the brand we wield
Unseen, the heroic breast not outward-steeled,
Earth hears no hurtle then from fiercest fray.
The fifth line of the poem is transitional. It at once
predicates all the heroic valor of the battlefield spoken
of in lines two, three, and four to Christ and, at the same j
i
i
time, because it is Christ Who is now the hero, raises it tcj
the supernatural level. Christ can claim the world's
admiration as a hero Who has fought valiantly and has the
scars to show for it. The same has been true of some of
^"Hopkins' The Windhover," The Explicator, xxii (March
1964) , item 54.
135
the martyrs. Martyrs may imitate the physical, external
suffering of Christ and also have the scars to show for it.
Such a martyr, St. Lawrence, Hopkins had celebrated in "The
Escorial."
For that staunch saint still prais'd his master's name j
While his crack'd flesh lay hissing on the grate;
Then fail'd the tongue; the poor collapsing frame
Hung like a wreck that flames not billows beat—
But men may just as truly be martyrs, witnesses to Christ,
if their bodies never show a visible scar. They may be
martyrs in an invisible, internal struggle even more intense,
the "fiercest fray."
The word "brand" is especially significant in estab
lishing the hidden hero as a martyr for Christ. "Brand"
may be taken to mean simply "sword," thus sustaining the
basic battle imagery of the poem (AS brand, brond, brand,
sword). The word "brand" also suggests, however, "a mark
put on criminals with a hot iron; hence, any mark of infamy;
a stigma." Therefore, "brand" suggests that in a humble,
hidden life a man may also bear, "wield," the "brand" or
"stigma" of Christ just as truly as the martyrs bear the
scars of visible suffering for Christ. In Galatians 6:17
we read, "From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear
in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." The gloss on the
word "marks" in The Westminster Study Edition of The Holy
Bibler the King James Version, reads, "v. 17 marks, of per
secution and hardship. As a brand was sometimes used on a
slave to show who was his master, so these marks show that
Paul belongs to and serves Christ."10 Hopkins had spoken
of the stigma, the brand marks, of Christ as identifying
others as His members both in "Rosa Mystica" and "The Wreck
of the Deutschland." The idea in this poem is that the
invisible "brand" or stigma that the hidden hero wields
marks him just as truly Christ's as the visible wounds of
the acclaimed martyrs mark them.
"Earth," the world, composed of those who do not see
or hear anything except the obvious, "hears no hurtle then
from fiercest fray." And, seeing or hearing no "exploit,"
they think that nothing significant is taking place. For
those of the earth, the "earthy" in St. Paul's term, must
hear the "hurtle," that is, "the clashing sound and noise
of collision" to believe something worthwhile is happening.
Yet God (that hews mountain and continent,
Earth, all, out; who, with trickling increment.
Veins violets and tall trees makes more and more)
Could crowd career with conquest while there went
Those years and years by of world without event
That in Majorca Alfonso watched the door.
10(Philadelphia, 1948), p. 333.
137
Hopkins uses the generic term "God" in the opening line of
the sestet, a term which when used without qualification
ordinarily refers to God the Father. The reason for this
change from the use of Christ, God the Son, in the fifth
line, to God the Father in the ninth line is that Hopkins
is stressing the creative action of God, which is predicated
of the Father just as the Redemption of the world is predi
cated of Christ, the Son. Commenting on a statement which
appeared in one of Hopkins' meditations on hell, Christopher!
Devlin writes:
Had there been no sin of angels or men, the com
ing of Christ would have been the efflorescence or
natural consummation of the creative strain; men's
minds and wills would have risen spontaneously and
harmoniously from creatures to God. But, as a
result of sin, natural values went astray and Christ
had to perform a violent readjustment of them by his
redemptive suffering. The redemptive strain still
continues the creative strain: see John v. 17, TMy
father works until now: and I work.' [Italics mine]^
The idea of creation is suggested by Hopkins' explanation off
I
the word "hews" in a letter to Bridges: !
. . . at any rate whatever is markedly featured in
stone or what is like stone is most naturally said
to be hewn, and to shape, itself means in Old English
l^Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 290,
note to p. 138.
1381
to hew and the Hebrew to create, even, properly
means to hew.12
The notion of God hewing or creating a monument in His
hidden hero, the just man, contrasts with the human artist
or creator in the first quatrain whose "strokes once gashed
flesh or galled shield" creating a hero in battle. The fu!3f
I
phrase "hews out" strengthens the notion of God the Creator
because it suggests the Thomistic terminology used in
referring to God's creation as ex nihilo, that is, out of
nothing. Since the suggestion of God creating both the
easily visible, "mountain and continent," and the impercept
ible continuation of that creation's growth, "with trickling
increment,/ Veins violets and tall trees makes more and
more," is applied by juxtaposition to the creation and slow
growth of holiness in St. Alphonsus' hidden life, we can
extend the creation ex nihilo idea to the near-nothing,
the insignificant daily actions of a hall porter. These !
I
i
actions, almost nothing as raw material, God uses to create I
and increase the monument-in-man of a spiritual hero. For
God not only creates mountain and continent, the whole
universe, but "all," that is, man as well. God creates the
12Hopkins, Letters to Bridges, pp. 296-297.
139 |
vast aspects of the universe with an obvious manifestation j
I
of power, "hews mountain and continent." But He can deli-
I
I
cately and quietly, "with trickling increment," increase
in growth what He has already brought into being, "Veins
violets and tall trees makes more and more." As Hopkins
had written in his explanation of "grace":
For grace is any action, activity, on God's part of
which, in creating or after creating, he carries the
creature to or towards the end of its being, which
is its selfsacrifice to God and its salvation.
[Italics mine]
So the redemption of each individual man by grace is a con- !
tinuation of his initial creation. In this poem the crea
tion spoken of is the creation of a new nature in the just
man by grace and its continued, slow growth the gradual
unfolding of that nature in its activities. The word
"veins" in the phrase we are discussing, "Veins violets and
tall trees makes more and more," bears out this statement, j
For the word "veins" means to put "veins" into something ancj
a vein as Hopkins used it in stanza 33, line 5 of "The |
j
Wreck of the Deutschland" means "inclination, desire;
natural tendency, talent; a deposit, as of minerals.
i
l^Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 154.
l^Schoder, "Interpretive Glossary," in Immortal Diamond,
ed. Norman Weyand, S. J., p. 201.
140 I
If St. Alphonsus in the supernatural order is the "violet"
and the "tall tree," then the word "veins" applies to
Alphonsus. And Christ, the Author of His new creation the
just man, puts in him the deposit of the stigmata conform
ing him in his daily actions more and more to Himself. This
is a slow process done "with trickling increment" but just
as effective ultimately as the stigmata won in a martyrdom
of physical suffering and death. And, using the "tall tree"
now as a symbol of St. Alphonsus, Christ makes it "more and
more" or causes it to grow. Hopkins had written:
When a man is in God's grace and free from mortal
sin, then everything that he does, so long as there
is no sin in it, gives God glory. . . . It is not
only prayer that gives God glory but works? smiting
on an anvil, sawing a beam, whitewashing a wall, driv
ing horses, sweeping, scouring, everything gives God
some glory if being in his grace you do it as your
duty. [Italics mine]15
When, in addition to this statement of Hopkins', we recall
that he defined grace as "Christ playing at me and me play
ing at Christ, only that it is no play but truth; That is
Christ being me and me being Christ,"1® we can see how the
career of a humble porter doing his duty in answering the
door during "those years and years . . . of world without
15Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 240.
16Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 154.
141 !
event" could win the ultimate honor of witnessing to Christ
as a martyr. St. Alphonsus, a living member of the "Mysti
cal Body of Christ," lived out his commitment made to Christ
i
at Baptism, although of his doing so the world took no
notice. The lack of any end punctuation in lines eleven,
twelve, and thirteen gives the sestet the sense of a closing
rush when read aloud, a rapidity which suggests the quickly
passing years of St. Alphonsus' life without any special or
noteworthy external events. In the phrase "of world without
event" Hopkins uses the device of altering slightly a well-
known phrase, in this case the phrase "world without end,"
to call the reader's attention to the significant fact being
stressed in the life of this "Laybrother of the Society of
Jesus." This altering of a familiar phrase causes the
reader to pause briefly in the over-all rapidity which the
reading of the lines themselves calls for. Elsie Elizabeth
i
Phare notes the full impact of the altered phrase when she !
i
states:
j
The accumulation of tedium expressed in the phrase
"world without event" is most striking. We expect
the phrase to be "world without end" and so we have
the two phrases in our mind at the same time, com
bining the notions of endlessness, monotonousness,
and resignation.
17»rhe Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins: A Survey and Com
mentary (Cambridge, 1933), p. 128.
The final words of the poem, "in Majorca Alfonso watched th^
1
door," further suggest the quietness of St. Alphonsus' life
and the menial nature of the work he did for nearly forty
years. So the generic statement with which "The Windhover"
ends can appropriately be applied to the laybrother Alfonso: !
Sheer plod makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.
There is only one basic image that must be examined in
a consideration of this poem's IMAGERY. It is the image of
a hero in battle. This basic image is used both on the
natural level in the first quatrain and on the supernatural
I
level, with overtones of the Pauline struggle, in the second
quatrain and the sestet. The battle may be external, as in
the first five lines of the poem, or internal, as in the
remainder of the poem. But in each case it is a real
struggle whose victorious hero deserves honor and glory.
i
The honor and glory will come from the world in the only j
|
terms it can render its honor and glory. From the spiritual
i
man must come the honor and glory demanded by the greater,
although hidden, "exploit" of a life lived in union with
Christ as a member of His "Mystical Body."
Words which sustain the image of a hero in battle in j
the first quatrain are "strokes," "gashed," "galled shield,"]
"trumpet," "field," and "fighter." In the second quatrain j
|
and the sestet the image of a hero in battle is sustained
by the words "war," "brand," "wield," "heroic breast,"
"outward-steeled," "hurtle," "fiercest fray," and "conquest."
Very often critics who trace the Ignatian influence in ;
J
Hopkins' poems indicate when treating a poem such as "St.
Alphonsus Rodriguez" that the Jesuits' militant ideal as
soldiers of Christ, their Hero, is clearly present.18 jn a
poem celebrating a saintly member of the Society of Jesus
this influence is even more strongly stressed. I do not
deny that the military tone of the Jesuit order after the
example of its soldier-founder, St. Ignatius, is present in
"St. Alphonsus Rodriguez." I would suggest, however, that
the military images of Hopkins' poems can be understood in
the broader context of the "just man" fighting for the
establishment of the Kingdom of God in himself and on earth.
i
It was with the phrase "Kingdom of God" that Christ des- j
i
cribed His Church, which in this dissertation I have spoken !
of in Pauline terms as the "Mystical Body of Christ." The
"Kingdom of God" and the "Mystical Body of Christ" are dif
ferent names for one and the same thing. My suggestion is
18See David Downes, GMH: A Study, p. 105 and Robert
Boyle, Metaphor in Hopkins, p. 80.
144
that when Hopkins uses military images, as he does in "St. j
Alphonsus Rodriguez," to portray the just man's struggle forj
goodness, these images need not be interpreted solely in
terms of Hopkins' training in the Jesuit order but may also
have reference to the fight that all Christians are obliged j
to undertake to establish in themselves and in the world the
"Kingdom of God," the "Mystical Body of Christ."
The TONE of "St. Alphonsus Rodriguez" progresses from
an initial distrust of catch phrases as capable of articu
lating the full truth about the reality of heroism, through
the growing realization that internal struggles may be as
fierce as or even more fierce than external ones, to the
triumphant climax in the poem's final lines where true,
though hidden, actions receive their deserved recognition.
The quietness of the poem's last line suggests the quiet
ness of a firm conviction reached after a full and thorough
i
examination of a difficult problem.
S
In "As Kingfishers Catch Fire, Dragonflies Draw Flame" ;
we read that "The just man justices;/ Keeps grace: that
keeps all his goings graces." In "The Windhover" we read
that among "all his goings" are to be counted the "sheer
i
plod [that] makes plow down sillion/ Shine." In "St.
Alphonsus Rodriguez," considered by some a pendant to "The
145]
i
Windhover," we find the specific example of a just man's
life that was "sheer plod" and which, nevertheless, was
turned into something "a billion times told lovelier" than
the external mastery and "achieve" of the hero in battle
whose exploits the world admires. In St. Alphonsus
Rodriguez" the honor that flashes off exploit is greater
than the honor flashed off the exploit of a military
hero, because St. Alphonsus' exploit, a spiritual one,
was greater.
The principal conclusion to be drawn from this analy
sis of "St. Alphonsus Rodriguez" for the study of the
"Mystical Body of Christ" as a symbol in Hopkins' poems is
that the just man, the incorporated member in Christ's
"Mystical Body," often lives a humble, hidden life, and
that even in this humble life, he can achieve real heroism
worthy of honor. This is true because as one who bears
the brand marks, the stigmata, of Christ in his soul, he
is identified with Christ and his monotonous, tedious,
daily actions have an inestimable value.
CHAPTER V
"THE CAGED SKYLARK"
In my discussion of "St. Alphonsus Rodriguez" I have
indicated that acclaimed martyrs are the exceptions and that
it is the lot of the just man, a living member of the "Mys
tical Body of Christ," to spend his life in hidden, often
plodding, daily work. In doing this work he can find
consolation in the fact that his unacclaimed and apparently
valueless work has, in fact, a great value because he shares
the life of Christ as a member of His "Mystical Body" and so
manifests Christ to the world in his actions. The just man
can find further consolation and inspiration "in drudgery,
day-labouring-out life's age" in the fact that the ultimate
end of his body which has suffered so much in this life is
a glorious resurrection. As St. Paul has said, and as the
just man must realize, "If we have been planted together in
the likeness of his death, we shall also be in the likeness
of his resurrection." (Romans 6:5) As was stated in the
study of "Barnfloor and Winepress," Christ is the
146
147
first-fruits of His redemption, and His members will follow
in His likeness.
With the idea of the just man's solidarity with Christ j
in mind a study of "The Caged Skylark," which treats the
ultimate reward of the just man, a glorious resurrection of I
body and soul, can be made. Thus far in my study I have !
presented in "Barnfloor and Winepress" the basic Head-
members concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ." I have
further indicated the relation of external nature to this
concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ" in "Hurrahing in
Harvest"; and in "As Kingfishers Catch Fire, Dragonflies
Draw Flame" and "St. Alphonsus Rodriguez" the relation of
the just man to the concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ."
Now, with the analysis of "The Caged Skylark" a further
step is taken in the study of man's relation to the "Mysti
cal Body of Christ" by considering the resurrection as the
ultimate goal and reward of the just man.^ j
i
i
^■Margaret Giovannini, "Hopkins' The Caged Skylark,”
The Explicator, xiv (March 1964), item 35. The author main-t
tains, and I agree, that "A knowledge of the Roman Catholic ;
doctrine of the resurrection of the flesh is essential [for ;
understanding this poem]. According to this doctrine, the
human soul exists between death and doomsday in a limited
condition, varying in its felicity according to its deserts I
but unable in any case to realize fully its potentialities
without the body which forms a part of human nature. Fol
lowing God's final judgment, each soul receives back its
X48 j
|
Far from regretting the trivial circumstances, the j
i
!
drudgery and monotony, in which a just man must often live
out his life, Hopkins rejoiced in them in a letter of
January 22, 1866, to E. H. Coleridge:
I
I think that the trivialness of life is, and per
sonally to each one, ought to be seen to be, done I
away with by the Incarnation— or, I shd. say the
difficulty wh. the trivialness of life presents
ought to be. It is one adorable point of the incred
ible condescension of the Incarnation {the greatness
of which no saint can have ever hoped to realise)
that our Lord submitted not only to the pains of life,
the fasting, scourging, crucifixion etc. or the
insults, as the mocking, blindfolding, spitting etc.,
but also to the mean and trivial accidents of human
ity. . . . It seems therefore that if the Incarnation
could versari inter trivial men and trivial things it
is not surprising that our reception or non-reception
of its benefits shd. be also amidst trivialities.^
Therefore, according to Hopkins, the just man can ordinarily
expect to live "in drudgery, day-labouring-out life's age."
But because he is a just man he will realize that he is
doing so in union with Christ and, therefore, to a great
j
i
j
1 i
■ ‘ ■(continued) own body, but in a state quite unlike j
that of its prior existence in the world. The resurrected
body of the saved soul possesses some of the preternatural
qualities enjoyed by Adam and Eve before the fall, plus
many more. It is immortal, incorrupt, no longer subject
to the limitations of space, and endowed with spiritual
qualities not associated with the bodies of men living in
the world. It is in every sense a joy to the soul."
^Hopkins, Further Letters, pp. 19-20.
149
extent elevating the apparent triviality of his actions.
In the introductory remarks to "The Caged Skylark" I
have consistently spoken of the just man as the focal point
of interest in the poem and I believe an analysis of the j
poem, especially the closing words "bones risen," bears out
this contention. It has been declared that all men will
1
rise on the last day: The unjust will rise to receive their
bodies as the instruments of the eternal punishment they
I
|
have deserved; the just to receive their bodies as the
instrument of eternal beautitude (John 5:28-29).^ The final!
I
two words of "The Caged Skylark" suggest by their tone of
exultation that the body that is risen is actually a glori
fied body. In this study the seed of grace planted in the
soul during life will have come to full flower. For the
unjust, the body received at the resurrection will not be
glorified but will be as dull and restraining as a prison.
Hopkins suggests, in an entry in his diary for the year
1872, that the unjust will be confined in their bodies as in
prisons. He had had a nightmare and was describing its
3"28 Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in j
which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, !
29 And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the j
resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto
the resurrection of damnation."
150
effects on him.
The feeling is terrible: the body no longer swayed i
as a piece . . . seems to fall in and hang like a
dead weight on the chest. It made me think that *
this is how the souls in hell would be imprisoned !
in their bodies as in prisons.4
i
The point to note here is that Hopkins understood that the
"souls in hell," those found to be unjust at the Last Judg
ment, do have bodies at the resurrection but that those
bodies, far from being transformed and glorified, are
actually the prisons in which they will serve their sentence
of eternal damnation. Hopkins was to express the same idea
some years later in "I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark, not
Day" when he wrote:
Selfyeast of spirit a dull dough sours. I see
The lost are like this, and their scourge to be
As I am mine, their sweating selves; but worse.
Hopkins treated the theme of the resurrection in three
i
poems: "The Caged Skylark" (1877), "The Leaden Echo and j
i
the Golden Echo" (1882) and "That Nature Is a Heraclitean |
I
Fire and of the Comfort of the Resurrection" (1888).^ The I
^Hopkins, Journals and Papers, p. 238. j
I
^Gardner, I, 156: "Nevertheless, against all this des- '
pair the poet's supreme religious consolations were first
stated in The Deutschland and later reaffirmed in separate
poems: e.g., the Comfort of the Resurrection. . . . (Foot
note: Nos. 15, 36, 48). ["The Caged Skylark," "The Leaden
Echo and the Golden Echo," "That Nature Is a Heraclitean
Fire and of the Comfort of the Resurrection."]
151
theme of the resurrection is implicit in "The Leaden Echo
and the "Golden Echo" and explicit in "The Caged Skylark"
and "That Nature Is a Heraclitean Fire and of the Comfort
of the Resurrection." I shall relate the resurrection as
the fulfillment of the just man's life to my study in a
close analysis of "The Caged Skylark."
The Caged Skylark
As a dare-gale skylark scanted in a dull cage
Man's mounting spirit in his bone-house, mean house,
dwells—
That bird beyond the remembering his free fells;
This in drudgery, day-labouring-out life's age.
Though aloft on turf or perch or poor low stage,
Both sing sometimes the sweetest, sweetest spells,
Yet both droop deadly sometimes in their cells
Or wring their barriers in bursts of fear or rage.
Not that the sweet-fowl, song-fowl, needs no rest—
Why, hear him, hear him babble and drop down to his
nest,
But his own nest, wild nest, no prison.
Man's spirit will be flesh-bound when found at best,
But uncumbered: meadow-down is not distressed
j /
For a rainbow footing it nor he for his bones risen.
The SUBJECT MATTER of this poem is the caged skylark,
symbolizing man's soul or spirit confined within his mortal
body.
The poem's THEME is that man's soul confined within
his mortal body, while it experiences passing periods of
joy amid distress, will ultimately find its complete and
permanent joy in a glorified body at the final resurrection
of the dead.
I
The EXTERNAL STRUCTURE of "The Caged Skylark" is that
i
of a Petrarchan sonnet with an octave of two clearly defined
quatrains rhyming abbaabba and a sestet of two clearly
I
defined tercets rhyming ccdccd. The rhyme pattern of the
sestet here, as in "St. Alphonsus Rodriguez," is functional.!
i
It serves to break the sestet into two clearly defined sec- !
tions which treat the principals of the poem, namely, the
skylark and man's spirit.
i
The INTERNAL STRUCTURE of the poem begins by comparing :
the "skylark" with "man's mounting spirit" and the sky
lark's "dull cage" with man's "bone-house, mean house."
The skylark, however, unlike man, is "beyond the remember
ing his free fells." To some extent the skylark is able to
i
forget his former freedom. But not so able is man, of whom
St. Augustine said, "You have made us for yourself, 0 God,
and our hearts are restless 'til they rest in You." Com-
i
menting on the third line of this poem, "That bird beyond |
the remembering of his free fells," Gardner states: I
|
The significant phrase is "beyond the remember
ing"; for just as the caged skylark seems at most
times to have grown accustomed to his bondage, to
....... 15 31
have forgotten his natural habitat, so the other j
bird, the spirit of man, is enslaved by the |
material world, seems to have forfeited its birth
right, to be cut off from its natural (that is,
supernatural) regions.6
i
In the second quatrain of the octave Hopkins develops
the idea that both the skylark and man's spirit experience,
despite their captivity, some passing moments of joy.
Inevitably, however, these brief moments are followed by
an even more intense dejection, as though the taste of
momentary joy has made their present state of confinement
all the more frustrating and unbearable.
Though aloft on turf or perch or poor low stage
Both sing sometimes the sweetest, sweetest spells, 1
Yet both droop deadly sometimes in their cells
Or wring their barriers in bursts of fear and rage.
In the sestet, the first tercet treats the skylark and
the second tercet treats "man's spirit." The ultimate ends
of the skylark and man's spirit are in reality the same.
Both want freedom from constraint and both need rest from
the alternate bursts of joy and subsequent periods of i
dejection which characterize the lives of mortal creatures.
I
The rest of the skylark is found only in dropping "down to
his nest,/ But his own nest," a nest in the freedom of the
wild, natural environment it knew before being caged. Man's
^Gardner, II, 256.
154 j
|
i
Spirit also looks forward to permanent rest in freedom, a j
freedom, which will come totally only after death.
Man's spirit will be flesh-bound when found at best
But uncumbered: meadow-down is not distressed t
For a rainbow footing it nor he for his bones risen.
"Man's spirit" will find rest hereafter when the seed of j
!
grace planted in Baptism and nurtured by bearing the suffer-j
ings of monotonous, tedious drudgery, innate in a limited
corporeal existence, rises in a glorious resurrection which
is the full flowering and reward of man's suffering in union1
with Christ. Then, in the full realization which only the
Resurrection will bring, man will recognize that the body,
/
"bones," which he suffered in during this life, will find
rest in a risen life-in-Christ. When this realization
becomes man's fully, he will no more feel distress at having
a body than "meadow down. . ./ For a rainbow footing it."
A close study of the DICTION of "The Caged Skylark" j
bears out fully the statements made thus far in my analysis j
j
of the poem. The robust, spirited nature of the skylark is
i
immediately suggested by the adjective compound "dare-gale."
|
This word further suggests "dare-devil" according to W. A. M*
Peters.^ There is a pluckiness about the skylark which is
i
7
Gerard Manley Hopkins: A Critical Essay, p. 118: "It
is enough to point out that 'dare-dale' immediately calls up
'dare-devil'!"
155
"scanted," that is, confined and restricted, by its "dull
cage." The just man of this poem also has a "mounting i
|
spirit," a spirit of initiative which seeks to rise above j
I
obstacles and difficulties. But he too is "scanted" by
"his bone-house, mean-house," that is, by his mortal flesh. |
i
!
The term "bone-house" at once accentuates the low, degrad
ing, prison-like nature of the body which encloses his
"mounting spirit" and forces it to look at the world through;
i
prison windows of bone-bars. The word "bone" also looks !
/ / !
forward to the poem's closing words, "bones risen," where
the very stuff of man's seeming prison, when properly
I
appreciated is transformed into the material of consummate
freedom. The word "dwells" underscores the seeming perman
ence of man's imprisoned condition.
The skylark's "free fells" were, according to R. V.
Schoder, the "hills; upland moors or fields,"8 about which
it formerly flew and sang in freedom. Yet now in its
captivity the bird seems resigned to its state. But man
"This [bird]" feels fully the weight of his captivity and
|
i
the sentence of life at hard work "in drudgery, day-labour
ing-out life's age." There is undoubtedly an echo in this
Q
"Interpretive Glossary," in Immortal Diamond, ed.
Norman Weyand, S. J., p. 204.
last phrase of Milton's famous line "Doth God exact day-
labour, light denied?"®
Still, although man feels strongly, as the skylark
temporarily does not, the sentence to a life of hard work
in prison, he can share at times a certain joy with the
skylark. The fifth line, "Though aloft on turf or perch
or poor low stage," applies both to the skylark and to man.
"Aloft on turf or perch" applies to the skylark. Bridges
explains this line by stating, "The cage is hung aloft, and
it has long been customary to place inside the cage of the
skylark 'a turf full of clover'."Therefore, whether on
the turf floor of its cage or slightly elevated on the
/
perch, the skylark does "sometimes [sing] the sweetest,
sweetest spells." Man also rises to moments of joy, but he
is even more conscious of the "poor low stage" from which
he rises and to which he must inevitably return. The
i
phrase "poor low stage" seems to echo Shakespeare's famous
lines, "All the world's a stage,/ And all the men and women
merely players" (As You Like It, II.vii.139-140) with all
®Gardner, I, 126. "Man's 'day-labouring-out life's age'
is probably intended to recall Milton's 'Doth God expect
day-labour, light denied?' (On his Blindness)."
^-®Hopkins, Poems, p. 230.
157 j
i
the lines' overtones of a humdrum routine that spans a life-j
|
time. The word "spells" when used as a noun, as it is used I
here, means the plural of "time, period of anguished
struggle." As a verb "spell" means "signify, import ('that
j
spells ruin'); utter, declare, tell."11 Both of these mean-j
i
ings merge in the word as Hopkins uses it. Used as a noun !
"spells" suggests that the expressions of the skylark while
joyous are mixed with anguish and this joyful anguish
i
"declares and tells of" the inner struggles of man and
bird, aware as they are, even in song, of their imprisoned
condition. Even in their temporary joy the weight of their
mortal condition encumbers both bird and man, making full
contentment with their lot impossible.
/
Yet both droop deadly sometimes in their cells
Or wring their barriers in bursts of fear and rage.
After their brief bursts of joy mingled with anguish of
inner struggles, both the skylark and man's spirit "droop
i
I
deadly," that is, death-like, "in their cells." The word !
"cells" reminds the reader again of the incarceration of
both skylark and man's spirit. The death-like stillness
which follows the brief, anguished exultation of both bird
j
^Schoder, "Interpretive Glossary," in Immortal Diamond,
ed. Norman Weyand, S. J., p. 199; p. 204.
158 I
and man's spirit is itself sometimes alternated with sudden
j
"bursts of fear and rage" as the caged bird or man manages
to "wring the barriers," that is, to "twist or writhe and
struggle in anguish"^2 against the barriers, the bars of
the cage and bones of the body, in an attempt to become i
i
|
free. !
i
Both the skylark and man's spirit are seeking for rest
in freedom from confinement; the skylark wants rest in the
freedom it will find in its natural habitat. So the poet
says, "Not that the sweet-fowl, song-fowl, needs no rest."
He does need rest and will only know it fully in the regained
freedom of his natural habitat. Formerly, in his freedom
the skylark did "drop down to his nest,/ But his own nest,
wild nest, no prison." The nest is "no prison" when freely
sought and accepted.
The second tercet of the sestet speaks of man's spirit.
I
I
The just man must somehow realize, as the second tercet j
helps him to realize, that his very "prison" is to be a
source of rest and contentment. Not, however, until he
realizes that his "bone-house," his "cell," his "prison" is
^-2Schoder, "Interpretive Glossary," in Immortal Diamond,
ed. Norman Weyand, S. J., p. 204.
to be transformed.
Man's spirit will be flesh-bound when found at best.
But uncumbered:
The struggle of man to be free from his body can end in
contentment only when he realizes that his body is a noble
|
part of his human nature, not a prison for his spirit, and
i
that he will always have his body, even after its resurrec
tion. But, the "flesh-bound" part of his humanity must not
weigh down, "cumber," his spirit. Commenting on the entire
sestet, Margaret Giovannini writes:
The phrase "mounting spirit," inserted in the second
line, however, points toward the contrasting condi
tions of the sestet, where the saved soul is com
pared to the wild bird. In its wild state, the bird
seeks its nest, its perch, freely; the nest of the
wild bird is home, a place of rest, not a prison.
Just so, the saved soul after death (man's soul "at
best") will seek its resurrected body freely, finding
in it no temporal or spatial limitations but, on the
contrary, a necessary instrument for the fullest
realization of human happiness. The final image of
the rainbow, symbol of hope, provides a concrete
illustration of the weightlessness (and brightness, j
beauty) of the glorified body.33 j
i
For the just man, his body will be "no prison" when his
bones are risen.
meadow-down is not distressed
0 0
For a rainbow footing it nor he for his bones risen.
'Hopkins' The Caged Skylark," The Explicator, xiv
(March 1956), item 35.
As John Pick says, "A meadow no more feels the pressure,
I
the discomfort, of the rainbow which rests on it than the
new man feels his body."14 The final image of the poem,
which when understood by the just man results in an aware-
i
ness of his ultimate destiny beyond this mortal world, also j
i
suggests in the rainbow a symbol of Christian hope. It is ■
in the Christian hope of the resurrection that the just man
must live. Pushing the image of the rainbow a step farther,
we can say that the sun is needed to cause a rainbow. The
sun in this poem which causes the rainbow of a transformed,
glorified human being, body and soul, is God the Son,
Christ, whose own resurrection is reflected in the resur-
/ *
rected body, "bones risen," of the just man who has lived a
life of grace in union with Him. The image, as W. H.
Gardner suggests, "is sufficiently delicate and 'metaphysi
cal' to tease us, very pleasantly, into wistful thought."1^
And again in another place Gardner says, "The very precari- \
i
ousness of this analogy expresses the ontological precari-
i
ousness of the subject, the ineffability of the super
natural."1^
14Pick, p. 70.
^Gardner, II, 257-258.
16Gardner, I, 190.
161 ]
The principal, sustained IMAGE in "The Caged Skylark"
j
can best be stated in a proportion: the cage is to the sky- j
i
lark as the body is to man's spirit. The only other image j
in the poem, that of the meadow-down and the rainbow, is
|
used within the framework of this larger, over-riding image.j
The image of a cage as the prison of the bird and the
body as a prison of man's spirit is supported by the words
"dull cage," "bone-house," "cells," "barriers," and "prison."
The image of the skylark as the symbol of man's spirit is
sustained in the words "dare-gale skylark," "man's mounting
spirit," "aloft on turf or perch," "poor low stage," "That
bird," "This [bird,]" "Both," and "their."
The image of a cage being to a skylark what a body is
to man's spirit is sustained in balance throughout the
entire poem. The caged skylark of the octave is contrasted
with the free skylark of the sestet; man's spirit caged
i
within the "bone-house, mean house" in the octave is con- j
\
\
trasted with the freedom of "man's spirit . . . found at
best" in the sestet when it is unencumbered by the trans
formed, glorified body after the resurrection. The under
standing of the idea presented in this sustained image can i
bring the just man a new realization of his ultimate des
tiny. In "The Caged Skylark" the realization of the truth
presented is so fully grasped that the poet speaks of man,
/ *
body and soul, solely in terms of his body, "bones risen."
The bones that were considered a prison early in the poem
have become by its end the very instrument of eternal
beautitude.
The note of transformation from something mean and
despicable, the body as a cell or prison, to something
I >
resplendently glorious, "bones risen," is struck even more
forcefully in the closing lines of "That Nature Is a
Heraclitean Fire and of the Comfort of the Resurrection"
where Hopkins says,
In a flash, at a trumpet crash,
I am all at once what Christ is, since he was what I am,
and
This Jack, joke, poor potsherd, patch, matchwood, immortal
diamond,
Is immortal diamond.
The suddenness of the resurrection will be like the sudden
coining of a rainbow, which in a moment appears crested above
a meadow or, as Hopkins writes in the above lines, echoing
St. Paul,it will come with the swiftness and finality of
1 7
x . . .we shall all be changed, 52 In a moment, in the
twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet
shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible,
and we shall all be changed. 52 For this corruptible must
put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortal
ity." (I Corinthians 15:51-53)
163
I
the "twinkling of an eye" and the crash of a trumpet. j
The transformation-in-Christ that will take place at
the resurrection is also much more clearly stated in the j
last lines of "That Nature Is a Heraclitean Fire and of the
Comfort of the Resurrection" than in the final words of |
"The Caged Skylark." The basic idea is the same in both |
poems, however. At the resurrection there will be a trans
formation of the poor and miserable and contemptible, "This
Jack, joke, poor potsherd, patch, matchwood, immortal
diamond," into the glorified body of the resurrected, "Is
immortal diamond." Just as the diamond, an apparently
I
immobile thing, is sparkling and full of life,18 so the
/ /
"bones risen," although apparently inert, actually throb
with a barely suppressed vitality after the resurrection.
The TONE of "The Caged Skylark" shows a development
from the poem's opening to its end. The first stanza is
characterized by a sense of depression and quiet j
I
i
18Phare, The Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins, p. 33: i
"It is interesting to note, that the stone to which he
[Hopkins] compares man's soul [in "That Nature Is a
Heraclitean Fire"], the stone which signifies permanence,
hardness, indestructibility is a diamond— a stone which by
its brilliance, its attraction to light, however still it
may be held, has still a kind of mobility, winking in the
sun, darting its rays now in one direction and now in
another . . . it is immortal but not immobile."
X64
desperation; the second stanza is characterized by frustra
tion and rage at the seeming inevitability of one's
imprisoned, mortal condition. The sestet shows a growing
sense of hope for improvement; in the skylark by the possi
bility of a return to its wild, free state, and in man by
the realization expressed in the subdued exultation of the
poem's final words, "bones risen." The exultation of the
poem's ending may suggest the bird rising in flight free
from its prison as the whole man rises in his "prison" when
he realizes that his body is a noble part of his full human
nature.
Hopkins' references to the resurrection in his prose
works are brief and scattered.^ two points are noteworthy.
First, he makes reference to St. Paul's First Epistle to
the Corinthians, the fifteenth chapter,20 in which the doc
trine of the resurrection is discussed at length and on the
fifty-second and fifty-third verses of which he based the
concluding lines of "That Nature Is a Heraclitean Fire and
of Comfort of the Resurrection." Secondly, Hopkins makes
reference to the fact that the resurrection of Christ from
^Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, pp. 72, 96.
20
*uHopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 192.
the dead should be a comfort or consolation to His members i
i
while they endure the hardships of this life for His sake.
Commenting on a meditation on "The Resurrection" in the
|
Spiritual Exercises, Hopkins wrote, "You would expect there-
i
fore a 6th, [point of meditation] as to consider how all
this Christ does for my encouragement and how I ought to
respond to it."^l The meditation itself suggested no such
consideration, and in Hopkins' mind it was thought a neces
sary corollary to a meditation on the resurrection.
The conclusion that follows from a consideration of
"The Caged Skylark" and the comments of various scholars
and Hopkins himself which clarify its meaning, is that the
resurrection in a glorified body ought to be one further
source of comfort to the just man as he lives his life as a
member of the "Mystical Body of Christ." The limitations of
a mortal body and the "drudgery day-labouring-out life's
!
age" are transitory aspects of man's full life. The suffer^
ings of this life and death itself are but necessary pre-
i
liminaries of the resurrection.
In his understanding of the necessary connection
between suffering and death and the resurrection, Hopkins ;
i
2Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 191. j
166
anticipated the current teaching of the Catholic Church on
the "Paschal Mystery" as enunciated by the Second Vatican
Council. In its "Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy" the
i
Council states:
The wonderful works of God among the people of the
Old Testament were but a prelude to the work of
Christ the Lord in redeeming mankind and giving per
fect glory to God. He achieved His task principally
by the paschal mystery of His blessed passion, resur
rection from the dead, and glorious ascension, where
by "dying, he destroyed our death and, rising, he
restored our life." (Footnote: Easter Preface of
the Roman Missal). For it was from the side of Christ
as He slept the sleep of death upon the cross that
there came forth "the wondrous sacrament of the whole
Church." [Italics m i n e ] 2 2
These words written in December, 1963, summarize the truths
that Hopkins has presented about the just man, the living
member of the "Mystical Body of Christ" in "As Kingfishers
Catch Fire, Dragonflies Draw Flame," "St. Alphonsus
Rodriguez," and "The Caged Skylark." The union of the just
man with Christ elevates his routine, daily actions. The
difficulties and sacrifices that these routine, daily
actions inevitably involve can be made endurable if the
just man realizes that in them he imitates the suffering of
Christ necessary for union with Him and if he remembers that
22
National Catholic Welfare Council (Wichita, 1964) ,
p. 70.
the sufferings of this life are but a passing phase that
will ultimately terminate in a glorious resurrection.
One further conclusion can be drawn from this study of
"The Caged Skylark." This poem treats the mystery of the
resurrection in relation to the just man and the just man
in relation to the "Mystical Body of Christ." A study of
the concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ" gives a focal
point, then, to which all the mysteries of the Catholic
religion which Hopkins embraced can be related. As a
Catholic priest Hopkins did not believe a conglomeration of
unrelated truths and mysteries. He came to see more and
more that the mysteries of his faith, such as the Incarna
tion, the resurrection, the divine maternity of Mary, as
well as external nature, man, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and
the Holy Ghost, were all related to the all-embracing
concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ."
1
CHAPTER VI
[
"ROSA MYSTICA"
j
I
In the poems "As Kingfishers Catch Firef Dragonflies |
Draw Flame," "St. Alphonsus Rodriguez," and "The Caged Sky
lark" the just man has been considered in his relation to
I
the "Mystical Body of Christ." The just man actually lives
the life of Christ when he is in the state of grace. He
does this most often in a humble, plodding, and unacclaimed
way, but in his restricted mortal existence he should always
find comfort in the realization that his earthly trials and
sufferings will culminate in a glorious resurrection of
both his body and his soul.
In "Rosa Mystica" Hopkins treats the most outstanding j
example of the just man, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and her j
role in the "Mystical Body of Christ." The root of all the
titles which Mary has in the "Mystical Body of Christ" is
her divine maternity. She was conceived immaculate, that
is, without the stain of Original Sin, she was preserved a
virgin even in her motherhood, she was assumed into Heaven
168
16 9
at her death, and she was made the channel through which
men receive all the grace that comes to them. All these
privileges Mary received because she had been selected from
among all mankind to be the Mother of Christ. From her
divine maternity, then, proceed all her singular privileges
and it is under the title of Mary’s motherhood that Hopkins
discusses her role in the "Mystical Body of Christ" in his
poem "Rosa Mystica." How far advanced Hopkins' thinking is
on the role of Mary in the "Mystical Body of Christ" is to
be considered in more detail at the conclusion of the com
plete analysis of "Rosa Mystica."
Rosa Mystica
'The Rose in a mystery'— where is it found?
Is it anything true? Does it grow upon ground?
It was made of earth's mould, but it went from
men's eyes,
And its place is a secret, and shut in the skies.
In the Gardens of God, in the daylight divine
Find me a place by thee, Mother of mine.
But where was it formerly? Which is the spot
That was blest in it once, though now it is not?
It is Galilee's growth; it grew at God's will
And broke into bloom upon Nazareth Hill.
In the Gardens of God, in the daylight divine
I shall look on thy loveliness, Mother of mine.
What was the season, then? How long ago?
When was the summer that saw the Bud blow?
Two thousands of years are near upon past
Since its birth, and its bloom, and its breathing
its last.
In the Gardens of God, in the daylight divine
I shall keep time with thee, Mother of mine.
170 ^
Tell me the name now, tell me its name:
The heart guesses easily, is it the same?
Mary, the Virgin, well the heart knows,
She is the mystery, she is that Rose.
In the Gardens of God, in the daylight divine
I shall come home to thee. Mother of mine.
Is Mary that Rose, then? Mary, the Tree?
But the Blossom, the Blossom there, who can it be?
Who can her Rose be? It could be but One:
Christ Jesus, our Lord— her God and her Son.
In the Gardens of God, in the daylight divine
Shew me thy Son, Mother, Mother of mine.
What was the colour of that Blossom bright?
White to begin with, immaculate white.
But what a wild flush on the flakes of it stood.
When the Rose ran in crimsonings down the Cross
wood.
In the Gardens of God, in the daylight divine
I shall worship the Wounds with thee, Mother of
mine.
How many leaves had it? Five they were then,
Five like the senses, and members of men;
Five is the number by nature, but now
They multiply, multiply, who can tell how.
In the Gardens of God, in the daylight divine
Make me a leaf in thee, Mother of mine.
Does it smell sweet, too, in that holy place?
Sweet unto God, and the sweetness is grace;
The breath of it bathes the great heaven above,
In grace that is charity, grace that is love.
To thy breast, to thy rest, to thy glory divine
Draw me by charity. Mother of mine.
The SUBJECT MATTER of this poem is the mystical rose,
Mary, who, although she was a Virgin, was yet the mother
of the physical Christ and of His mystical members.
The THEME of this poem is that Mary, the mystical rose.
171
although she was a virgin, was yet the mother of the physi
cal Christ and of His mystical members, just as a rose bush
is the "mother” of its every bud and blossom. Mary won her
spiritual motherhood of all men principally by giving birth
to Christ, the Head of the Mystical Body, and by uniting her
will to His in His suffering and death.
An examination of the EXTERNAL STRUCTURE OF "Rosa
Mystica" shows that it is divided into eight stanzas of
six lines each. Each stanza is composed of two rhyming
couplets and a concluding couplet refrain. The rhyme scheme
of aabbcc, ddeecc is consistent throughout the poem.
A study of the INTERNAL STRUCTURE of this poem shows
that the first two stanzas are devoted to the Blessed
Virgin Mary's life and death. The third stanza introduces
Christ and in summary fashion gives the main outline of His
life under the figure of a Bud that drew its life from the
mystical rose, Mary. "Two thousands of years are near upon
past/ Since its birth, and its bloom, and its breathing its
last."
The fourth stanza clearly names the mystical rose
spoken of in the first two stanzas as "Mary, the Virgin."
The fifth stanza clearly identifies by name "the Blossom"
which grew from this mystical rose bush as "Christ Jesus,
172 I
our Lord--her God and her Son." The sixth stanza then goes
I
on to describe under the figure of rose flakes the scourgingj
and crucifixion of Christ, the central act of His redemptivej
mission.
In the seventh stanza the important transition from
i
Christ to His members is made. The five wounds of Christ's :
body, the stigmata, suffered in His passion are used as the
identifying marks of His members. "They [the wounds of
Christ] multiply, multiply, who can tell how." These words
with their implicit multiplication of Christ's members
remind us of the concluding words of "As Kingfishers Catch
Fire, Dragonflies Draw Flame,"
for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men's faces.
The point of emphasis in "Rosa Mystica" is on the fact that
the effective means of this multiplication or supernatural
configuration to Christ, namely, grace, comes to all the
i
members of Christ's "Mystical Body" through Mary, because
she gave physical life to Christ, the Head of the Mystical
Body. In "As Kingfishers Catch Fire, Dragonflies Draw
Flame" the emphasis was on the grace itself as uniting !
Christ's members to Him, and not on the source of that
grace. The final stanza of "Rosa Mystica" deals with the
17 3
grace which is charity and love, as the means used by God
to conform men to Himself as members of His "Mystical Body.
The closing couplet of each stanza while maintaining
the same number of feet, anapestic quadrameter, in each
line and the same end rhyme, C£, varies its wording signi
ficantly in response to the specific thought of each stanza
In the discussion of diction which follows, the aptness of
these verbal variations is indicated.
Consideration here of the DICTION of "Rosa Mystica"
begins with the poem's title. This title is taken from the
Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The poem is a prolonged
examination of the full import of this title, "Mystical
Rose."
The opening words of the poem, namely, "’The Rose in a
mystery'"1 may be read as, "'The Rose [wrapped] in a mys
tery,'" or it may be read as a reflection of the fact that
the Blessed Virgin Mary's life in Catholic prayer is
divided into the "mysteries" of the rosary. Each important
event of Mary's and her Son's life is commemorated in a
1Josephine Miles, "The Sweet and Lovely Language," in
Gerard Manley Hopkins by the Kenyon Critics (Norfolk, 1945)
p. 71. Miss Miles gives this line as "'The Rose is^ a
mystery'— where is it found?" [Italics mine]
"mystery" of the rosary, and by meditation on these "mys-
i
teries" it is hoped that the meaning of each event com
memorated will become clearer and more easily applicable to
the life of the one saying the rosary. Judging from the
quotation marks which are used to set off this opening
j
phrase and the dash which immediately follows it, it would
seem that Hopkins is using the title "Mystical Rose" in the
litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary as a starting point for
i
his examination and adding to it the notion of a "mystery"
from the rosary. Hopkins was to begin both "Hurrahing in
Harvest" and "St. Alphonsus Rodriguez" with a quoted passage
as a starting point. The poem, then, opens with the words
"'The Rose in a mystery'— " and the poet goes on to ask,
where is it found?
Is it anything true, Does it grow upon ground?
The poem opens, understandably enough since it is attempting
to probe a mystery, with a series of questions in the open- |
i
i
ing couplet. In the following couplet the answers to these
questions are supplied in a general way.
It was made of earth's mould, but it went from
men's eyes,
And its place is a secret, and shut in the skies.
Mary, mysterious and goddess-like as her role is to be in
God's plan, is "made of earth's mould." She is fully human.!
17 5
With these words Hopkins wants to forestall, as he was to
do later in "The Blessed Virgin Compared to the Air We
]
Breathe," any misunderstanding about Mary's true role as thei
j
mother of God. Because she was human and mortal she died,
but at her death she "went from men's eyes," that is, she |
was assumed by God, body and soul, into Heaven, the "place 1
is a secret, and shut in the skies." The words of this
entire second couplet in the first stanza remind the reader
of the scene of Christ's, her Son's, ascension as described
in the Acts of the Apostles.
And when he [Christ] had spoken these things,
while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud
received him out of their sight. 10 And while they
looked up steadfastly toward heaven as he went up,
behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;
11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye
gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is
taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like
manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. (Acts 1:9-
11) [Italics mine]
There follows the refrain which is a petition evoked by the
i
thoughts of the stanza. I
In the Gardens of God, in the daylight divine
Fine me a place by thee. Mother of mine.
In this opening stanza the poet's petition is for ultimate
union with Mary in "God's Gardens," heaven. i
After this opening stanza with its general presentation
of the mystery of Mary's life in the Catholic scheme of
176
reality, and what her ultimate destination is as a result
of it, Hopkins returns to examine in more detail Mary's
earthly life.
But where was it formerly? Which is the spot
That was blest in it once, though now it is not?
The answers to these questions are given in terms of the
gospel narrative, where we learn that Mary lived in Galilee
and at Nazareth conceived Christ, her Son, by the power of
the Holy Ghost.
It is Galilee's growth; it grew at God's will
And broke into bloom upon Nazareth's hill.
Mary's growth as a human being took place in Galilee.
But her growth as a mother, her pregnancy, began "at God's
will," that is, by the overshadowing power of the Holy
Ghost, in Nazareth where it was announced to her by the
angel that she was to be the Mother of God. "And broke
into bloom upon Nazareth's hill."
Anticipating the happy union with Mary for which he
had petitioned at the end of the first stanza, Hopkins says
confidently here, "I shall look on thy loveliness, Mother
of mine."
Still probing into the historical circumstances which
are the physical surroundings of the mystery of Mary's
divine maternity, Hopkins, having determined where the
177
mystery of Christ's conception took place, now asks when it
took place.
What was the season then? How long ago?
When was the summer that saw the Bud blow?
And immediately the answer comes back, summing up pithily
in alliteration the Bud's earthly life.
!
Two thousands of years are near upon past
Since its birth, and its bloom, and its breathing
its last.
The birth, the mature life, and the death of the God-man,
Christ, are the most important events in history for the
poet, and so he states, "I shall keep time with thee,
Mother of mine." Hopkins had written in his Journal how
impressed he had been by nature's "keeping time with" God.
First saw the Northern Lights. My eye was caught
by beams of light and dark very like the crown of
horny rays the sun makes behind clouds. . . . This
busy working of nature wholly independent of the
earth and seeming to go in a strain of time not .
reckoned by our reckoning of days and years but
simpler and as if correcting the preoccupation of
the world by being preoccupied with and appealing j
to and dated to the day of judgment was like a new |
witness to God and filled me with fear.^
i
Hopkins in the words "I shall keep time with thee, Mother of
mine" wants to live his life, as even nature seems to do, ini
a consciousness of the fact that God became incarnate, lived
‘ ‘ •Hopkins, Journals and Papers, pp. 199-200.
17*T]
as a human being for thirty-three years and died on the j
i
cross and by doing so gave all human history a "positive
pitch and direction." In "The Wreck of the Deutschland" a
few years later Hopkins was to write of the stress of the
i
incarnate God's presence in the world
i
|
But it rides time like riding a river
(And here the faithful waver, the faithless fable and miss) :
It dates from day
Of his going in Galilee;
Warm-laid grave of a womb-like grey;
Manger, maiden's knee;
The dense and driven Passion, and frightful sweat.
Christ's impact on human history, although it had been fore
shadowed in the Old Testament, first made its full force
felt when He took flesh and became man. Once it had been
made, this impact was to continue not only in the physical
Christ Who suffered and died on the cross but also in the
Mystical Christ, His Church, carrying on His work for all
time. So Hopkins continues in the stanza from "The Wreck
I
1
of the Deutschland" quoted above,
Thence the discharge of it, there its swelling to be,
Though felt before, though in high flood yet—
What none would have known of it, only the heart, being
hard at bay.
This "positive pitch and direction" of Christ's influence, i
I
begun in His earthly life and continued in His Mystical Body!
as suggested in the phrase "it [the Mystery of Christ living
179 1
i
in the world] rides time like riding a river," is what the j
poet seeks when he says "I shall keep time with thee, Mother
of mine." As I have indicated in the introduction to this
study, Devlin explains the phrase "it rides time like rid
ing a river" by saying, "On this precedent, the 'positive j
I
I
pitch and direction' would be the evolution through many ups'
and down of God's plan in history, a plan which may be
said to be the incorporation of the universe into the Mysti
cal Body of Christ."-*
The words "I shall keep time with thee, Mother of
mine" also remind us of the words from the poem "The Blessed
i
Virgin Compared to the Air We Breathe,"
Of her flesh, he took flesh:
He does take fresh and fresh,
Though much the mystery how,
Not flesh but spirit now
And makes, 0 marvelous!
New Nazareths in us,
Where she shall yet conceive
Him, morning, noon, and eve;
New Bethlems, and he born
There, evening, noon, and morn. 1
The prayer which furnishes the background for these lines,
it seems to me, is the "Angelus," which is recited each day
by Catholics "morning, noon, and eve . . . evening, noon,
•*Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 306, S
note 196. j
4
and morn— " In the recitation of this prayer the mystery
of Christ's incarnation is renewed; and, in a certain sense,,
by its daily recitation it helps Catholics to "keep time
with" Christ and His mother. As Mary conceived Christ
"according to thy word," that is, through the overshadowing i
power of the Holy Ghost, so does each child of Mary on hear
ing these words of the "Angelus" recall Christ's incarnation
and his own sharing in it as Christ's member. Hopkins'
petition to Mary at the end of "The Blessed Virgin Compared
to the Air We Breathe," namely, "Stir in my ears, speak
there/ Of God's love," further suggests that Christ, the
Word Incarnate, comes to His members through Mary not only
in His physical Person but also verbally in His gospel, the
word of God also, and that this process is a continuing one
renewed each day in the saying of the "Angelus." Father
Boyle comments on this process when he writes:
I
. . . in an extremely subtle but powerful image i
Hopkins is referring to the Word of God being j
i
^The words of the "Angelus" which Catholics recite are: ;
V. The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary
R. And she conceived of the Holy Ghost.
V. Behold the handmaid of the Lord j
R. Be it done unto me according to thy word.
V. And the Word was made flesh
R. And dwelt amongst us.
181
brought to us by the air which is Mary, as the word
of another man is carried to our ear by the literal
flow of air. Certainly air, or rather Mary, is bring
ing the Word in this way in the conclusion of the
poem:
Stir in my ears, speak there
Of God's love, 0 live air. . . .
. . . Hence air, by whose flow any word proceeds
to us and through which the word enters into our
ears is a powerful image of the activity of Mary as
Hopkins here expresses it.5
The first three stanzas, sustaining the suspense that
a mystery should have, do not name either Mary or Christ,
although the reader undoubtedly suspects that both are
being spoken of. In the next two stanzas Hopkins clearly
names the mystical Rose and its Blossom or Bud as Mary, the
virgin mother, and Christ, her Son.
Tell me the name now, tell me its name:
The heart guesses easily, is it the same?
Again, following the pattern established in the first three
stanzas, the poet begins the stanza with a question. And
again he immediately answers it:
Mary, the Virgin, well the heart knows.
She is the mystery, she is that Rose.
Significantly, it is "the heart" which "guesses easily" the
mystery that Mary is, for it is the heart, as we have seen
^Metaphor in Hopkins, pp. 52-53.
182 ^
in the consideration of "Hurrahing in Harvest," which sees
below the surface of things and grasps the full meaning of
their being. Part of the mystery which "the heart knows" of
Mary's divine maternity is suggested by the appositive, "The
Virgin." Mary is a virgin and remained a virgin during and .
i
[
after the birth of her Son. That a virgin could be a mothef
and still remain a virgin is one of the "rhetorical anti
theses" which Hopkins saw in the whole mystery of the Incar
nation. He had written:
It leads one naturally to rhetorical antithesis to
think for instance that after making the world He
[Christ] shd. consent to be taught carpentering, and,
being the eternal Reason, to be catechised in the
theology of the Rabbins.°
Perhaps it is the co-existence of virginity and divine
maternity in Mary, a mystery, which causes Hopkins to say
in the refrain of this stanza, "I shall come home to thee,
Mother of mine," just as he had written that it was the
j
coexistence of the divine and human natures in Christ which j
!
made Christ's Person so interesting and attractive to
F
Hopkins; for Hopkins had written:
i
To the Catholic it is: Christ is in every sense God
and in every sense man, and the interest is in the
locked and inseparable combination, or rather it is
^Hopkins, Further Letters, pp. 19-20.
183
in the person in whom the combination has its place.^
Since the answer is already known, Hopkins asks in rhe
torical questions at the opening of the fifth stanza, "Is
Mary that Rose, then? Mary, the Tree?" Still the question
remains, "But the Blossom, the Blossom there, who can it
be?/ Who can her Rose be?" Mary, it must be noted, is
considered now no longer as merely a rose but as a rose
"Tree" which itself gives life and being to other roses.
Already more than half suspecting the answer to the ques
tion "the Blossom there, who can it be?" Hopkins continues
It could be but One:
Christ Jesus, our Lord— her God and her Son.
Again there is suggested one of the "rhetorical antitheses"
which surround the Incarnation, namely, that Christ Who is
in every way God could be truly Mary's Son. How can such
a mystery be understood? Only by faith and with guidance.
Therefore, Hopkins closes this stanza with the line "Shew
me thy Son, Mother, Mother of mine." "Shew me," that is,
help me to grasp the mystery of your God-man Son. And, as
though to underline his claim to Mary's help and guidance,
Hopkins repeats the word "mother" in his petition, "Shew me
thy Son, Mother, Mother of mine."
7
Hopkins, Further Letters, p. 188.
184 1
In the sixth stanza Hopkins examines more in detail
the life of Christ summarized in the third stanza in the
single line, "Since its birth, and its bloom, and its breathf-
ing its last."
What was the colour of that Blossom bright?
White to begin with, immaculate white.
Christ was without physical or moral blemish of body or ■
soul. He was, as the Scripture says, the "unblemished
I
Lamb," totally without personal sin, and so in no need of j
redemption. The phrase "immaculate white" applies in this
context not only to Christ but also to "Mary, the Virgin,"
who was immaculate, preserved from even the stain of Ori
ginal Sin. Christ was an immaculate Blossom from an
immaculate rose. This spotless, immaculate Blossom became
the willing victim for the sins of all men.
But what a wild flush on the flakes of it stood
When the Rose ran in crimsonings down the Crosswood.
i
In "The Wreck of the Deutschland" Hopkins was to speak of j
j
this bloody sacrifice of the cross as a "ruddying of the j
rose-flake." The idea in "Rosa Mystica" is the same. Each !
petal, "flake," of the Rose, Christ, was ruddied, crimsoned :
by the red blood of Christ in His crucifixion. It was by j
this bloody death on the cross that Christ won redemption,
not for Himself, because He was "immaculate," but for the
members of His "Mystical Body," the Church. Realizing that i
he is a beneficiary of Christ's bloody death, as are all
the members of the "Mystical Body," Hopkins concludes the
stanza by acknowledging that he will gladly recognize the
value of Christ's death for him in the visible signs of thatj
agonizing death, the wounds of Christ. "I shall worship the
wounds with thee, Mother of mine." One of Mary's claims to
the motherhood of all the members of Christ's "Mystical
Body" is that she joined with Christ in His bloody redemp
tive sacrifice by a complete union of her will with His.
Mention only is made of this fact here. It is developed
I
further in the following stanza.
In the seventh stanza Hopkins pursues the thought on
the wounds of Christ begun in the final line of the sixth
stanza.
How many leaves had it? Five they were then
Five like the senses, and members of men;
Five is the number by nature, but now j
They multiply, multiply, who can tell how. j
The understanding of these crucial lines is most important
for the present study. In the first two and a half lines
Hopkins is speaking of the five wounds of Christ. In "The
i
Wreck of the Deutschland" Hopkins was to write of these
wounds of Christ,
185 '
Five! the finding and sake
And cipher of suffering Christ. . . .
Stigma, signal, cinquefoil token.
The contrast between the thought in the first two and a
half lines of this stanza and the thought in the next line
I
and a half is clearly indicated by the words "then. . . .
i
now." In the first lines Hopkins is speaking of the physi- !
cal wounds of the physical Christ "then." In the following
lines, "now," he is speaking of the spiritual wounds of the
mystical members of Christ. Strengthening this contention !
are the words "Five is the number by nature." Why does
Hopkins use the phrase "by nature"? Because Hopkins is
speaking of the stigma, the wounds in the natural, physical
Body of Christ. But, as the poem goes on to show, the
physical suffering and death of the physical Christ did not
put an end to His life. "... but now/ They multiply,
multiply, who can tell how." Now, at the time Hopkins was
i
writing, although "Two thousands of years are now upon i
I
past," Christ still lives on in those marked with His
stigma, His "brand marks," as we saw in our study of "St.
Alphonsus Rodriguez." By the spiritual stigma of Christ
in His members He continues to live not now "by nature,"
that is, physically, but in mystery, in the members of His
"Mystical Body," the Church. "Now/ they multiply, multiply."
187 |
The word "they” in this sentence refers immediately to the
wounds, the stigma of Christ, and only mediately to the
members configured to Christ by the wounds. These wounds
in Christ's members are multiplied. The five nuns who died
on the Deutschland multiplied them; St. Alphonsus Rodriguez j
multiplied them and so does every just man who is through
the motherhood of Mary conformed to the wounds of Christ.
As Hopkins was to write in "The Blessed Virgin Compared to
the Air We Breathe,"
Of her flesh he took flesh
He does take fresh and fresh.
Though much the mystery how,
Not flesh but spirit now. !
The wounds of Christ, the signs by which He seals His mem
bers as His own in their flesh, "multiply, multiply" in all
those who share the life of His Body still living mystically
in the world. This is a mystery. Hopkins simply states it ,
as one and does not try to explain, "Who can tell how," j
!
"though much the mystery how." As Hopkins was to write j
later to Bridges in 1883: *
But a catholic by mystery means an incomprehensible
certainty: without certainty, without formulation
there is no interest. . . . the clearer the formula
tion the greater the interest. At bottom the source
of interest is the same in both cases, in your mind
and in ours; it is the unknown, the reserve of truth
beyond what the mind reaches and still feels to be
behind. But the interest a Catholic feels is, if I
188'
j
t
may say so, a far finer kind than yours. [Italics j
mine]8
Incomprehensible as it may be, it is a certainty of faith
that Mary, who was the mother of Christ's physical members I
in the flesh, is also the mother of his mystical members in;
i
the spirit and this by reason of the two titles presented j
in "Rosa Mystica": first, that she was the rose tree that !
gave physical life to the Blossom, Christ; and, second, that
in His physical sufferings, the "crimsonings" of the petals*
Mary joined in a union of wills with her Son. So Hopkins
concludes the stanza with the petition, "Make me a leaf in
thee, Mother of mine." The word "leaf" calls to mind the
whole vine-branch imagery which Christ Himself had used to
describe the close union between Himself and the members of
His "Mystical Body."9 Hopkins is asking in effect that the
Rose Tree that gave life to the Blossom, Christ, may also
give him life as a blossom marked with the crimson marks of'
I
Christ. As he has done in each stanza of the poem, Hopkins|
^Hopkins, Letters to Bridges, p. 187.
^John 15:4-5 "4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the
branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the
vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. 5 I am the
vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I
in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without
me ye can do nothing."
ends this seventh stanza with the words "Mother of mine."
--------- I
Mary's motherhood not only of the physical members of
Christ's human body but also of the spiritual members of
I
His mystical Body gives an added depth of meaning to Mary's
title, Rosa Mystica, just as the gradual unfolding of a I
rose allows us to look deeper and deeper into its inner j
life.
By what means is this union of Christ in His members
through the motherhood of Mary to be accomplished? By
grace, charity, love, which, as Hopkins was to write later,
are
. . . any activity, on God's part by which, in creat
ing or after creating, he carries the creature to or
towards the end of its being, which is its self-
sacrifice to God and its salvation. . . . It is as
if a man said: That is Christ playing at me and me
playing at Christ, only that it is no play but truth;
That is Christ being me and me being Christ.10
Christ is multiplied in just men by His grace, the sweetness
of the roses which are Christ's members. For, continuing to
refer to the members of Christ's "Mystical Body" as the
petals or flakes on the Blossom (Christ), sprung from the
Rose Tree (Mary), the poem concludes:
Does it smell sweet, too, in that holy place?
Sweet unto God, and the sweetness is grace.
i
^Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 154.
190
The phrase "in that holy place" refers to men's souls which
i
share Christ's life. These souls have a sweetness in the
sight of God "and the sweetness is grace." Further inten-
i
sifying the identification of sweetness as God's grace, the
i
I
poem continues
!
The breath of it bathes the great heaven above 1
In grace that is charity, grace that is love.
Grace, then, is the means by which men are united to and
identified with Christ. The word "breath" while applicable
1
to the fragrance of a rose, also suggests the breath of
life on a human level. The breath of a human being's
spiritual life is grace, the life or breath of God shared
with men. This grace, sweetness, breath comes ultimately
from the Blossom which is Christ and this Blossom in turn
received its life from the Mystical Rose, Mary, the proxi
mate channel of this grace and sweetness to all the members
I
of the "Mystical Body of Christ." In a true sense, then, !
i
Mary is the mother of the members of Christ's "Mystical
Body" and to her logically the poet prays in conclusion
j
To thy breast, to thy rest, to thy glory divine
Draw me by charity, Mother of mine.
Mary's maternity not only of Christ but also of all His
members is stressed by the word "breast." As a mother she
presides over a child's place of "rest," the home, in this
poem clearly intended to be heaven. Both are important.
But above all, Hopkins prays to be drawn to "thy glory
divine." Robert Boyle in his discussion of "The Blessed
Virgin Compared to the Air We Breathe" suggests that the
glory which Mary is to let through in the phrase "Let all
God's glory through" is the divine life which flows from
Christ to us through Mary.11 Applying his interpretation
of the word "glory," with which I agree, to the final lines
of "Rosa Mystica" it would mean that Hopkins is asking to
be given through Mary a greater share in Christ's divine
life, grace, by his increased charity or love for her
I
maternity, "Mother of mine."
The IMAGERY of "Rosa Mystica" is built on the sustained
comparison of the Blessed Virgin Mary to a rose. In its
full growth this rose became a Tree and from it broke the
Bloom or Blossom, Christ. Christ, in turn, on reaching
full maturity, shares with others His own life under the j
j
figure of a rose and its petals.
i
i
The terms which sustain the basic comparison of Mary
to a rose are "Rose," "earth's mould," "Galilee's growth,"
"broke," "season," "summer," and "Tree." Terms which
11Metaphor in Hopkins, p. 52.
sustain the basic comparison of Christ as the offspring of
the Mystical Rose are "bloom," "birth . . . bloom . . .
breathing its last," "Blossom," "colour," "immaculate
white," "wild flush," "flakes," and "leaves." The words
which sustain the basic comparison of the members of Christj
as continuing the life of Christ, Mary's Blossom, are !
"multiply, multiply," "leaf," "sweetness," and "breath."
It is most appropriate and helpful in a consideration
i
of the imagery of "Rosa Mystica" to relate it to "The
Blessed Virgin Compared to the Air We Breathe." Both poems
discuss the same basic idea. In the latter poem, also
sometimes entitled "Mary Mother of Graces Compared to the
Air We B r e a t h e , "-*-2 Hopkins examines the role of Mary in the
"Mystical Body of Christ" by comparing her to life-giving
air. In "Rosa Mystica" Hopkins examines the role of Mary
in the "Mystical Body of Christ" by comparing her to a
life-giving rose, a Mystical Rose. In both poems the same
truth is presented: Mary is the mother of the physical mem-
i
bers of Christ's natural body just as she is the mother of !
the spiritual members of His "Mystical Body."
^Eleanor Ruggles, Gerard Manley Hopkins: A Life (New
York, 1944), p. 221. Miss Ruggles indicates her prefer
ence for this title by using it in her discussion of the
poem.
193
The TONE of "Rosa Mystica" is a mixture of awe at the
tremendous role Mary plays in the "Mystical Body of Christ"
and affection for the person who plays such a vital role.
The sense of awe increases as the poem progresses and
Hopkins realizes more and more the full implications of the
title "Mystical Rose." Accompanying this awe and increasing
concomitantly with it is the affection of a child for its
mother as indicated by the final words of each stanza's
refrain "Mother of mine."
To my knowledge this is the first complete analysis
of "Rosa Mystica" that has appeared in public form. Even
W. H. Gardner gives only passing mention to this poem
along with Hopkins' other Marian poems: "Ad Mariam" and
"The May Magnificat." Both Gardner and Boyle give rather
complete analyses of "The Blessed Virgin Compared to the
Air We Breathe," a poem which Maurice McNamee says is "the
most penetrating and beautiful Marian poem in our langu-
1 1
age."A I have selected "Rosa Mystica" for study precisely
because it has not yet been closely examined in relation
to the concept of the'Mystical Body of Christ." However,
^3"Poet of Nature and the Supernatural," in Immortal
Diamond, ed. Norman Weyand, S. J., p. 246.
194
since so few authors have even commented on "Rosa Mystica"
there is little to offer by way of scholarly illumination.
In Hopkins' prose writings he sees Mary as the mother
of all the graces which Christ gives to His members.
Hopkins indicated this understanding of Mary's role in the j
j
Church, the "Mystical Body of Christ," when he told his
congregation:
St. Bernard's saying, All grace given through Mary:
this is a mystery. Like blue sky, which for all its
richness of colour does not stain the sunlight,
though smoke and red clouds do, so God's graces come
to us unchanged but all through her. Moreover she
gladdens the Catholic's heaven and when she is
brightest so is the sun her son: he that sees no
blue sees no sun either, so with Protestants.14
Hopkins sees Mary's place in the "Mystical Body of Christ"
as a mystery and this sense of mystery pervades "Rosa
Mystica."
The principal conclusion suggested by this study of
I
"Rosa Mystica" is that the Blessed Virgin Mary plays a
vital part in the "Mystical Body of Christ." As the mother j
of Christ she is also the mother of every member of His
I
"Mystical Body," both by reason of giving Christ physical
i
life and by reason of joining with Him in a union of wills
i
during His redemptive passion and death.
14Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 29.
The second conclusion that can be validly drawn from
this study of "Rosa Mystica" is that all the prerogatives
which Mary enjoys: her immaculate conception and birth, her
assumption into Heaven, her role as mediatrix of all graces,
and her role as the mother of Christ's mystical members, al]j
stem from the fact that she was chosen by God to be His
mother. Therefore, the mysteries of the Annunciation,
Immaculate Conception, Assumption, Mediatrix of all graces,
and Divine Maternity all find a focal point in their rela
tion to Mary as the mother of all the members of the "Mysti-*
cal Body of Christ." Just as this poem might be analyzed
and appreciated by itself, so each of the titles of the
Blessed Virgin Mary might also be appreciated by itself.
However, when the poem is studied in its relation to the
body of Hopkins' work and the titles of Mary which it
presents are related to the concept of the "Mystical Body
of Christ," there emerges a unity-in-diversity which this j
I
study is attempting to explain.
Hopkins' originality in theological thinking is most i
evident in his presentation of Mary's role in the life of
the Catholic Church, the "Mystical Body of Christ." And
I
i
Mary's role in the Church is clearly presented in "Rosa
Mystica." In its "Constitution on the Church" promulgated
196
on November 21, 1964, the Second Vatican Council, express
ing the truth which Hopkins presents in "Rosa Mystica"
'
states, "She [Mary] is the mother of the members of Christ
. . . having co-operated by charity that the faithful might
i
be born in the Church, who are the members of that Head
[Christ]. As in so many other areas, Hopkins shows him
self a farsighted, original thinker in his understanding
of Mary's role in the "Mystical Body of Christ."
In this study of "Rosa Mystica" I have examined Mary's !
role in the "Mystical Body of Christ." Next will come, in
the analysis of "God's Grandeur," evidence of Hopkins'
awareness and appreciation of the role of the Holy Ghost in
the "Mystical Body of Christ."
l^National Catholic Welfare Conference, "Constitution on
the Church" (Washington, D. C., 1964), p. 62.
CHAPTER VII
"GOD'S GRANDEUR"
A proper understanding of the role which the Holy
Ghost plays in the "Mystical Body of Christ" calls for
knowledge of a basic teaching of Catholic doctrine. That
basic teaching is that although Christ is the central
figure in the history of the world's salvation (whether
foreshadowed in the Old Testament; physically present in
the world, according to the Gospels; or mystically present,
according to the Epistles), God the Father and God the Holy
Ghost, the First and Third Persons of the Trinity, also
play important roles.
God the Father dominates salvation history in the Old
Testament principally in the acts of creating the universe j
I
j
and preparing the world for the coming of a Savior after
I
the fall of Adam and Eve. With the conception of Christ by
Mary at the Annunciation, Christ physically begins to make
his "stress" felt in the universe. This physical presence
continued throughout thirty-three years of His earthly life
197
and culminated in His death on the cross. Then, as the
!
Second Vatican Council tells us, ". . . from the side of
Christ as He slept the sleep of death upon the cross . . .
there came forth 'the wondrous sacrament of the whole
!
Church',”1 that is, the "Mystical Body of Christ." At the
instant of Christ's physical death, the mystical Christ
i
began His existence. Therefore, there was not a moment when
the "stress" of Christ was not felt in the world. And the
soul of the "Mystical Body of Christ," its breath of life,
is the Holy Ghost. He is the vivifying, the sanctifying
principle of Christ's "Mystical Body" and of all the members
i
who compose it. Further, however, since Christ redeemed not
only man but in him all creation and all creation belongs
to the "Mystical Body of Christ" through its crown,
redeemed man, the Holy Ghost as the vivifying, life-giving
principle of the "Mystical Body of Christ" gives life to andj
l
I
sustains life in external nature also. This is difficult to(
understand, but I believe that only if it is understood can
l
a poem such as "God's Grandeur" be fully understood. And
once this important idea is grasped, that the Holy Ghost
1National Catholic Welfare Council, "Constitution on
the Liturgy" (Wichita, Kansas, 1964), p. 70.
199
gives life both to external nature and to man as each is
united to the "Mystical Body of Christ" according to its
nature, then the reader can better understand and appreciate
many other poems in which Hopkins writes of external
nature.^
Hopkins, of course, would have been reminded every year
in the liturgical cycle of the Church of the three phrases
of the influence of God the Father, God the Son, and God the
Holy Ghost.^ During Advent, the beginning of the Church
year and the time that immediately precedes Christmas, God
the Father is prominent in the liturgy. Beginning with
Christmas and lasting until Pentecost, God the Son is promi
nent in the liturgy. From Pentecost until the beginning of
the following Advent season, God the Holy Ghost is prominent
in the liturgy. Thus one God is manifested in the activi
ties of three distinct Persons. Hopkins has indicated, in
the sermon he preached at Liverpool on April 25, 1880, his
understanding of the various activities of the Persons of
^See Poems, Nos. 35, 40, and 58, as sample poems in
which external nature plays an important part.
■'Hopkins, Letters to Bridges, p. 149. In this letter
of June 16, 1882, a good example can be found of how a
liturgical celebration, here a Corpus Christi procession,
suggested these ideas.
the Trinity as supplementing one another.^ j
The immediate concern in this analysis of "God's
Grandeur" is with the role of the Holy Ghost in the "Mysti- ;
i
cal Body of Christ." His role is twofold: to give life and!
j
once it is given to sustain it. The Holy Ghost both gives
and sustains life in external nature and man, but in each
according to its nature. The life He gives to external
nature is the inner vitality which keeps it true to its
redeemed nature. The life He gives to man is the life of ■
grace which conforms him as a just man to Christ. Our prin
cipal interest in the study of "God's Grandeur" is in the
life-giving and life-sustaining activity of the Holy Ghost
in external nature. The analyses of "As Kingfishers Catch
Fire, Dragonflies Draw Flame," "St. Alphonsus Rodriguez,"
and "The Caged Skylark" concentrate on the relation of the
just man to the "Mystical Body of Christ," and necessarily ^
there has been discussion of the work of the Holy Ghost
through grace. Therefore, in the examination of "God's
j
Grandeur," although some place is given to a discussion of
the Holy Ghost's role in giving and sustaining the life of
the just man, the principal emphasis is on the role of the j
r
4
Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, pp. 68-7 5.
201
Holy Ghost as giving and sustaining the life of external
nature. By understanding how external nature is vivified
and sustained by the Holy Ghost, perhaps the reader can
better understand Hopkins' persistent interest in and high
regard for external nature.
It will be helpful in this analysis of "God's Grandeur',
from the point of emphasis on the Holy Ghost's activity in
external nature, for the reader to try to view external
nature as Hopkins himself did. He felt that external nature,
like man, has a "self," an individuality, almost a personal
ity. It is not dead and lifeless but alive and pulsating
with vitality. Therefore, although external nature lacks
the elevation and dignity of man, it still has a claim in
its selfhood to be incorporated into the "Mystical Body of
Christ" just as man with his personality has a claim to be
incorporated into the "Mystical Body of Christ." W. A. M.
Peters accurately states my own view of nature's selfhood j
when he writes:
There is evidence in his writings that Hopkins was
acutely aware of the fact that, in spite of profound
generic and specific differences, man and beast and
inanimate nature were all alike 'selves,' 'supposits,'
so that from this angle of vision there was between
man and the rest of creation a difference of degree,
not one of kind. In man the self was joined to a
free nature, while in all other things the self was
not so raised. Thus he writes: 'A person is defined
2021
a rational (that is/intellectual) supposit, the
supposit of a rational nature. A supposit is a
self. . . .' (N. 322) 'Now if self begins to mani
fest its freedom with the rise from an irrational to
a rational nature, it is a person. . . . (N. 323)'
This most peculiar attitude toward the self— whether
joined to a rational or to an irrational nature—
immediately proceeding from his habitual search for
the inscape of things, drove Hopkins instinctively
to their impersonation, a personifying, that is, of j
the irrational selves on the level of sensitive per
ception, unconscious therefore, in so far as Hopkins
neither reflected upon it nor intellectually accounted
for it.
Activity on the object's part was an indication of
its impersonation, for example, 'each mortal thing. .
. . Deals out that being indoors each one dwells.'
This constant attribution of activity and life as a
rule found its origin in Hopkins's impersonation of
the object. [Italics mine]5
Hopkins, according to Peters, viewed external nature as
manifested in each individual thing almost as a person.
This fact explains his otherwise puzzling sadness, sadness
almost to the point of tears, at the wanton destruction of
!
nature by man. The importance of this view of external
nature for the present study lies in the fact that it lays |
j
the foundation for an understanding of how the mineral,
plant, and animal aspects of external nature can be incor- ;
!
porated into the "Mystical Body of Christ." In view of the
above statement by Peters, I cannot agree with Sister Mary i
i
^Gerard Manley Hopkins: A Critical Study, pp. 7-10.
20 3~
Adroita Hart when she writes: ;
This is not precisely the same instress of Christ
which he [Hopkins] is describing in stanza 5, which
distinguishes between Christ's mystery and His pres
ence in the natural phenomena mentioned:
I kiss my hand
To the stars, etc. etc...............
Since, thoV he is under the world's splendour
and wonder,
His mystery must be instressed, stressed.
The stars, the thunder, the sunset are by no means
spoken of in terms of participating in Christ's life:
this incorporation into Christ, which is the essence
of 'His mystery,' is 'Christ's gift' not to external
nature but to men......... Nevertheless, all creation
does indeed know the divine presence in a lesser
degree, as the narrator acknowledges: 'he is under
(not in) the world's splendour and wonder. [Italics
mine]^~
A close examination and study of "God's Grandeur" shows, I
believe, that external nature is capable of being incorpor- ;
ated into and participating in the life of the "Mystical
Body of Christ," if the nature of this incorporation and
I
participation is properly understood. Hopkins' unique view!
I
of external nature as having a self, almost a personality,
makes such an incorporation and participation not only pos
sible but an actual fact, as will appear in the analysis of
^"The Christocentric Theme in Gerard Manley Hopkins' 'The
Wreck of the Deutschland,'" Catholic University of America
(Washington, 1952), unpublished doctoral dissertation,
p. 77.
2041
"God's Grandeur.”
God's Grandeur
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with
toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the
soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down .things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs--
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ahl bright
wings.
The SUBJECT MATTER of this poem is the sublimity and
magnificence of God as seen reflected in created nature.^
The THEME of the poem is that the sublimity and magni
ficence of God so ubiquitous in created nature goes for the |
i
I
most part unrecognized by men, who often give it abuse— I
j
abuse, however, which is incapable of destroying the funda
mental vitality won for it by Christ in the redemption and
^Robert Boyle, Metaphor in Hopkins, p. 37. Boyle states
his subject of this poem as, "The indwelling of the Holy
Ghost in creatures and above all in the souls of men." Thisl
statement indicates the same basic subject as mine but with
a different emphasis.
205 |
perpetuated by the animating force of Christ's "Mystical j
i
i
Body," the Holy Ghost.
The EXTERNAL STRUCTURE of "God's Grandeur" is easily
j
delineated. It is a Petrarchan sonnet with the two qua
trains of the octave rhyming abbaabba and the three couplets
of the sestet rhyming cdcdcd. The indentations used in the
lines of both the octave and the sestet help to accentuate
the quatrains and the couplets.
The INTERNAL STRUCTURE of the poem follows this exter- 1
nal structure closely. In the octave the problem of the
poem is presented in a juxtaposition of the world "charged
i
with the grandeur of God" and man who has abused and is con
tinuing to abuse it. "Generations have trod, have trod,
have trod." More and more because of his abuse of nature,
man is becoming insulated to its purpose, "nor can foot
feel, being shod."
I
The sestet is divided into three couplets. The first j
i
i
couplet restates the ineradicable vitality of nature. '
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things.
i
The second couplet interjects a note on the darkness of the
J
world scene as a result of man's constant misuse of nature
|
by twisting it from its true purpose.
206
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
The third couplet gives the reason why "There lives the j
dearest freshness deep down things," the reason, namely,
that the Holy Ghost, the vital principle of the "Mystical j
Body of Christ," exerts a supernatural light and warmth
which sustains its inner vitality and keep nature true to
its real purpose of reflecting God's magnificence in the
world.
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright
wings.
The first word to be examined in a discussion of the
DICTION of "God's Grandeur" is the word "world." I under
stand this word to mean principally and primarily the
inanimate world of rocks, stars, fields, and so on, and the
animate world of plants and animals. Man is included in ,
the word "world" in an a fortiori manner. If external j
i
nature is charged with the grandeur of God which derives
ultimately from the vivifying activity of the Holy Ghost,
I
|
then, a fortiori, man, who is the crown of creation, is also
charged with the grandeur of God. The "grandeur of God" j
with which the world is charged is His sublimity and magni- |
ficence. The word "charged" not only lays the foundation
207
for the image of the next line but also suggests "being
charged with an obligation," an obligation which, as it
turns out, man has not met.®
There follows, immediately after the electrifying state
ment with which the poem opens, the compound image of God's
grandeur compared to a flash of light and the ooze of oil.
The comparisons of this compound image are discussed more
appropriately in the following section of this analysis.
From the opening statement and the compound image which
immediately follows, it would seem undeniably obvious that
God's grandeur is omnipresent in the universe for all men to
see. The question that logically arises in the poet's mind,
as it must in the mind of anyone who has seen the grandeur
of God in the world and also seen it all but ignored, is "Why
do men then now not reck his rod?" The convoluted structure
of the sentence is functional. The contrasts of the word
"then" with the word "now" as well as those of the word "not"
with the word "reck" force the reader to slow down in read
ing the line, in order to ponder its full import.
®Downes, GMH: A Study, p. 157: "The sonnet opens with.
. . . 'The world is charged with the grandeur of God.' The
octave continues with a highly imaginative illumination of
this assertion which is then set against the way the world
fares under mein's 'charge.'"
208 i
The answer to this difficult question follows immedi- ;
ately in the second quatrain:
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with
toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the
soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel being shod.
The answer to the question of why men do not "reck," that
is, acknowledge and submit to "God's rod," His rule of them
called for by the obvious sublimity and magnificence of
external nature, is simply that men have too often been
engaged in commercial pursuits often requiring an unscrupu
lous manipulation of external nature itself. "Trade," com
mercial ventures whose primary end is pecuniary gain, has
become in the hands of the unscrupulous man a brand to
"sear" external nature by putting his own puny mark where
the clear mark of God's grandeur had been before. The
result of man's venal "toil" has been, aside from the paltry
gain derived from it, to blear and smear God's grandeur in j
i
the universe. Man's toil has "bleared," that is, made dim |
God's magnificence in nature and at the same time it has
"smeared," covered over with commercial ventures, God's
sublimity. Where before man's first fall and again after
its newly won redemption the earth, "sweet Earth, sweet j
209 !
landscape," had the odor of God's presence about it, now,
t
as a result of man's "trade" and "toil," it "wears man's
smudge and shares man's smell." The word "smudge" not only
further accentuates the puniness of man's defacing efforts,
but also sustains the idea of man's blighting effect on
external nature, while at the same time it prepares the j
reader for the ultimate survival of nature's basic vitality
presented in the sestet. For a "smudge" on a master
i
painter's canvas does not totally destroy the beauty of the
painting, although it does detract from it. At this junc
ture of the poem's development, however, this is only a
passing thought. The awful truth, still to be dwelt on, is
that the creation which was to remind man at every turn of
the elevation and transcendence of the God Who created it
for him, has been willfully abused by man even after its
redemption by Christ just as it had been by Adam and Eve in j
i
I
their Original Sin. ". . . the soil/ Is bare now, nor can
foot feel, being shod." "Now," even after its redemption by
i
Christ, the good earth has been trampled bare by generationsj
who "have trod, have trod, have trod," on it unfeelingly. >
The word "generations" indicates that no single greedy j
individual is to blame for the depredation by man of the j
!
earth. No, this has been a long, long process to which
210 |
f
thousands have contributed, thousands who in the process
of abusing external nature have gradually but effectively
insulated themselves from the salutary effects redeemed
i
external nature was intended to have on them: "nor can foot
i
feel, being shod." In the repetition of the words "have j
i
i
S
trod, have trod, have trod" there is a verbal echo of the j
I
monotonous, treadmill process which the devastating of
eternal nature has been, and an echo of the emptiness of the
lives of those who did it. 1
But the redemption of external nature by Christ has
taken place, and the effects of that redemption will never
again be denied to nature as they were denied to it by Adam
and Eve's misuse. Nature itself will remain the untarnished
reflection of its Maker and a ready instrument to be used
in understanding Him even if the insensitive man, "to his
own selfbent so bound," chooses to make meaningless the j
!
effects of the redemption for himself. Nature's newly-won i
i
vitality is deep and ineradicable. '
i
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things.
Man's abuse of nature, however, makes the world seem a dark
!
place. But it is not a hopeless place, because of the
vitalizing effect of the redemption perpetuated in the
person of the Holy Ghost, the soul and vital principle of
the "Mystical Body."
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ahl bright
wings.
The word "Because," which introduces the poem's con
cluding couplet, is most important for an understanding of
the poem's full meaning. It is not a conclusion tacked on
to the poem which is totally unrelated to what has gone
before.9 Rather the causal relation between the inner
i
vitality of redeemed nature and the Holy Ghost's continual
renewal of it flows logically from all that Hopkins has
said in the octave if it is understood in relation to the
concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ." The technique of ;
saving the full impact of a poem's meaning until the end is ,
not limited to "God's Grandeur.1 1 In her explication of
i
"The Caged Skylark" Margaret Giovannini remarks: j
i
The key to the poem's meaning rests in the final
phrase 'bones risen,' which can only refer to the
resurrection of the body after death; placed as it
Q *
?See Yvor Winters, On Modern Poets (New Directions,
1943), p. 165. Mr. Winters writes, for example, that i
". . . Hopkins'method in general is to employ the landscape
as the immediate motive for a feeling which is too great for
it, and then to append the perfunctory moral as a kind of
theoretic justification."
212 1
is at the end of the sonnet, the allusion produces
the coveted effect of surprise, a characteristic of
Hopkins' technique, forcing the reader to review
the entire poem from a new perspective.10
In a compound image Hopkins clearly shows the relation of
the Holy Ghost to external nature. Once this closing image j
i
i
is read and understood, the entire poem must be read again j
"from a new perspective."
There are two magnificent images to be considered in a
discussion of this poem's IMAGERY. One opens the poem, and
the other closes it.
The first image is stated in the first three lines of
the poem.
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed.
Two quotations from Hopkins' prose writings are helpful as
i
background for the understanding of this image, for the sakej
i
i
of which the whole sonnet might have been written, as j
Hopkins says in a letter of January 4, 1883, to Bridges.H !
The first quotation from Hopkins' prose writings is taken
from his commentary on the Spiritual Exercises:
I®"Hopkins' The Caged Skylark," The Explicator, xiv
(March 1956), item 35.
HHopkins, Letters to Bridges, p. 168.
213
All things therefore are charged with love, are
charged with God and if we know how to touch them
give off sparks and take fire, yield drops and
flow.12
The second quotation that is helpful as background for
the opening image of this poem is taken from the letter to
Bridges just mentioned, in which Hopkins explicates the
first part of the compound image, namely, "It will flame
out like shining from shook foil."
I mean foil in the sense of leaf or tinsel, and no
other word whatever will give the effect I want.
Shaken goldfoil gives off broad glares like sheet
lightning and also, and this is true of nothing else,
owing to its zigzag dints and creasings and network
of amall cornered facets, a sort of fork lightning
too.12
Thus Hopkins explicates the image. Different scholars,
attempting to probe the depths of this image fully, have
looked at it on various levels. Hugh Pendexter, writing in
The Explicator, gives the image built around the word "foil"
a scientific explanation in terms of a Leyden jar experi
ment. 14 Robert Boyle partially explains the image on a
scientific level in terms of Faraday's "ice-pail"
l2Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 195.
l3Hopkins, Letters to Bridges, p. 169.
l^"Hopkins' 'God's Grandeur,' 1-2," xxiii (January
1965), item 2.
experiment.15 W. H. Gardner and Robert Boyle, while
|
acknowledging the scientific basis of the image, also view
it on a theological level, and Boyle probes still deeper
into the biblical-liturgical implications of the image.1®
i
The first part of the image, "The world is charged witl*
i
i
the grandeur of God./ It will flame out, like shining from
shook foil," on a purely scientific level would suggest
that the world, like a huge metal ball, is charged with
electricity. When gold "foil" is brought near enough to
this highly charged metal ball, a flash flames out from it
indicating the presence of the stored but invisible elec
tricity in the metal ball.
If this first part of the compound image which opens
the poem is considered on a theological level, the metal
ball is the world created by God and, as Hopkins said,
"charged with love." This love, like the electricity in a
i
metal ball, is invisible. But if a leaf of gold foil, a j
i
small, delicate insight, is placed near the whole world
15Metaphor in Hopkins, p. 26.
^Gardner, II, 230-231; and Boyle, Metaphor in Hopkins,
pp. 27-31. Ronald Bates in "Hopkins' Ember Poems: A
Liturgical Source," Renascence, xvii (Fall 1964), 32-37,
views the first part of the opening image in terms of
Catholic liturgy and adds to what Boyle had written.
pulsating with God's love, then the grandeur, the magnifi
cent love of God flames out of the world for the beholder
to see.
The first part of this compound image, when viewed on
i
the biblical-liturgical level, reveals the flame in terms |
j
of the shekinah, or pillar of flame, by which God in the
Old Testament made His presence known to His people in their
wanderings. (Ps. 105:39)^ Bates sees the biblical-
liturgical source of the image "It will flame out, like
shining from shook foil," in the Epistle of the Mass of
St. Matthew, the Apostle, which fell on September 21, 1877,
two days before "God's Grandeur" was written on September
23, 1877. Bates writes:
The Epistle (Ezechiel i. 10-14) for this Mass pre
sents the vision of the four symbolical animals:
'And as for the likeness of the living creatures,
their appearance was like that of burning coals of
fire, and like the appearance of lamps. This was
the vision running to and fro in the midst of the
living creatures, a bright fire, and lightning going j
forth from the fire. And the living creatures ran j
and returned like flashes of lightning.118
Boyle explains the biblical-liturgical source of the image j
being discussed when he writes:
i
1 7
"He spread a cloud for a covering;/ And fire to give
light in the night."
"Hopkins' Ember Poems: A Liturgical Source," Renas-
cence, xvii (Fall 1964), 36. ________
The flame of our image is like another Scriptural
revelatory flame: 'And here the Lord revealed him
self through a flame that rose up from the midst of
a bush; it seemed that the bush was alight, yet did
not burn. Here is a great sight, said Moses, I must
go up and see more of it, a bush that does not waste
by burning. But now, as he saw him coming up to
look closer, the Lord called to him from the midst
of the bush, Moses, Moses; and when he answered, I
am here, at thy command, he was told, Do not come
nearer; rather take the shoes from thy feet, thou art
standing on holy ground.' (Exodus 3:2-5). In later
lines of our poem we find generations of men ignoring
the flame that reveals God, trampling on the world and
living things, bushes and all, that might reveal Him,
profaning with shod feet what should be holy ground,
not bare soil.19
Boyle also sees the "grandeur of God" as the sun which
shines on creation, illuminating it for men to appreciate.
Thus with the Holy Ghost compared to the rising sun in the
poem's closing image he links the opening and the closing
lines of the poem.
Without drawing any conclusions from these suggested
interpretations of various scholars at this point in my
analysis, I shall go on immediately to consider the second
part of the compound image with which the poem opens,
namely, "It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil/
Crushed." The word "It," referring to "grandeur" in the
first line of the poem, shows this to be the second part of
l^Metaphor in Hopkins, pp. 30-31.
a compound image.
This second part of the compound image may be looked
at on scientific, theological, and biblical-liturgical
levels. Boyle explains the "greatness" resulting from the
"ooze of oil/ Crushed" as the accumulation of electrical
particles which was thought to gather on the very extremity
of an electrically charged metal ball. Thus he links the
first and second parts of the compound image:
In this second, allied image Hopkins speaks of the
'ooze' which 'gathers to a greatness.' The popular
conception of electricity as a fluid may have had a
background influence on this image too, for elec
tricity was thought to gather upon one over-full body
before flowing to another in which a deficiency of
the 'fluid* created a v a c a n c y . 20
Todd K. Bender also suggests a scientific explanation for
the expression "ooze of oil/ Crushed." He sees this "oil"
as a symbol of the mechanistic age in which the poem was
written. As the machinery of the Industrial Revolution
2
worked, the oil used to keep it going oozed to a greatness.
W. H. Gardner interprets the second part of the com
pound image solely in theological terms. He writes, "Apt,
too, is the next similitude, the crushing of oil-seed; for
^ Metaphor in Hopkins, p. 31.
21"Hopkins' 'God's Grandeur'," The Explicator, xxi
(March 1963), item 55.
here the Divine effluence, normally obscured by industrial
ism, is richly recommunicated in terms of an industrial
process."22 Boyle is more specific about the "industrial
process" and sees it as the Old Testament custom of crush
ing olives to obtain the pure oil which was the source of
the flame which always burned before the Holy of Holies in
the Jewish Temple. "In any case," Boyle writes, "... the
oil is closely allied to the revealing flame and the golden
light of the previous image, for it is such clear oil that
God demanded to feed the flame which revealed His presence
in the gold-gleaming Tabernacle."23
Ronald Bates interprets this image entirely on the
biblical-liturgical level:
In "God's Grandeur" one of the images is quite accur
ately Biblical, 'the ooze of oil/ Crushed.' (11. 3-4),
that is 'beaten oil,' . . . Leviticus (xxiv. 1-3)
reads 'And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Command
the children of Israel, that they bring unto thee the
finest and clearest of olives to furnish the lamps
continually, without the veil of the testimony in the
tabernacle of the covenant. And Aaron, shall set
them from evening until morning before the Lord, by
a perpetual service and rite in your generations.'^4
22Gardner, II, 231.
22Metaphor in Hopkins, p. 33.
24"Hopkins' Ember Poems: A Liturgical Source,"
Renascence, xvii (Fall 1964), 35.
219
Both Boyle and Bates quote the same text from Leviticus,
and Bates goes farther than Boyle, seeing a liturgical
source for the text in the Ember Day Masses that Hopkins
was reading at the time this poem was written:
On Ember Saturday in September, the Mass that is
'eminently suited for an ordination' is the one that
'recalls this feast the feast of the Tabernacles both
of penance and joy.;' The First and Second Lessons
are Leviticus xxiii. 26-32 and 39-43, which give the
Lord's proclamation to Moses concerning the day of
the Atonement on the tenth day of the seventh month,
The Feast of Tabernacles starting on the fifteenth.2^
Taken altogether the various interpretations, whether
on scientific, theological or biblical-liturgical levels,
give a sense of the depth of the image in the first three
lines of "God's Grandeur."
External nature, "The world charged with the grandeur
of God," like the compound image used to celebrate it, can
be examined and probed at the scientific, theological, and
biblical-liturgical levels. Man's efforts should be used
to probe as deeply as he can, so that he can appreciate all
the possibilities of external nature. The unjust man, not
yet incorporated into the "Mystical Body of Christ," can
approach the depths of God's sublimity and magnificence
25"Hopkins' Ember Poems: A Liturgical Source,"
Renascence, xvii (Fall 1964), 36.
even in nature, and from the visible, created universe he
can deduce something about the invisible Creator and
Redeemer. The just man, accepting Christ's presence in
the physical universe, must probe still deeper to the
theological, biblical, and liturgical levels of its poten
tial and so strengthen his already existing but still weak
faith. Unfortunately, the response of all too many men to
this wonderfully complex and potentially rich universe has
been dismally disappointing, as Hopkins saw it. Men have
not acknowledged God's rule over them through external
nature, just as the recalcitrant Jews did not acknowledge
Aaron's rod or rule over them.2^ Heedless of the potential
which redeemed external nature offers,
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with
toil
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the
soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
There is reason for despair at man's disappointing response
to God's grandeur in external nature. But Hopkins does not
despair because
2^Bates, "Hopkins' Ember Poems: A Liturgical Source,"
Renascence, xvii (Fall 1964), 36. Bates says, "The rod of
the Lord (1. 4) may spring from the mention of Aaron in the
details concerning the feast of Tabernacles, or it may come
directly from the Ember Masses."
221
. . . for all this nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things.
Just as the poem opened with the magnificence of God and
tapered down to the small universe reflecting it, so now !
the crescendo of the poem's closing image begins with the
i
universe bare, black, and bent, as man has left it, and !
|
rises to the greatness of God the Holy Ghost, whose light
and warmth comfort the universe as a sunrise illuminates a
dark plain and a mother bird warms her brood. The density
i
of the phrase "bent/ World" is suggested by Thomas L. Watson
when he writes in The Explicator:
Father Boyle feels that Hopkins meant that the 1
world is 'God-bent' as she faithfully travels the
bend or curve to which God determines her (p. 170).
But 'bent' seems charged with more ambiguity and sug
gests four other images; the bowed but not broken
world; the world as a barren heath, spiritually desic
cated; the world laid waste by man's materialistic
battle; and the world taut, braced for action rather
than for the contemplation of God's g r a n d e u r . 27
As the poem opened with a compound image, so it closes with ■
one.
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright
wings.
97
16' "Hopkins' God' s Grandeur, " The Explicator, xxii (March
1964), item 47.
2 2 2
i
The comforting activity of the Holy Ghost, whose role is to !
complete the work initiated by God the Father in creation
and continued by God the Son in the redemption, is likened
to both the rising sun and a brooding bird.
The destruction which man has wrought on the universe I
!
could lead one to see the world in a twilight of decline
and decay: "... the last lights off the black West went."
However, man is not to determine now, as he once did in the
person of Adam and Eve, the course the universe is to take.
As a direct result of Adam and Eve's abuse of it, the uni
verse was cursed (Genesis 3:17-19). But Christ in the
redemption has reversed that judgment, and the Holy Ghost,
continuing Christ's redemptive work in external nature as
in man, sheds the first faint rays of his revivifying
influence on the darkened scene, "Oh, morning, at the brown
i
brink eastward, springs— " The dash after the word in
!
"springs— " is functional. It forces the reader to pause j
i
i
expectantly as one does in watching a natural sunrise. The !
Holy Ghost is the source of the supernatural light and I
warmth which the black, cold universe needs. Finally,
using a traditional symbol of the Holy Ghost in the liturgy i
of the Catholic Church, the dove, Hopkins suggests not only
the warmth of the Holy Ghost but more specifically the great
223
solicitude He has for the universe, "The Holy Ghost over the
bent/ World broods." The word "broods" also calls to mind,
with a sinister suggestion that some men will never "reck
his rod," the final lament of Christ over Jerusalem:
Jerusalem! Jerusalem! thou that killest the prophets,
and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often
would I have gathered thy children together, even as
a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye
would not! 38 Behold, your house is left unto you
desolate. 39 For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me
henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed i£ he that
cosneth in the name of the Lord. (Matt. 23:37-39)
[Italics mine]
Both Christ and the Holy Ghost are Paracletes, as Hopkins
wrote in a sermon of April 25, 1880, but the Holy Ghost is
The Paraclete.He would do what Christ could not do.
Therefore, the ominous note suggested in the allusion to
Christ as a rejected Comforter is offset by the knowledge
that the Holy Ghost will ultimately succeed in His mission.
As Hopkins said:
And now, brethren, time fails me. Else I should i
I
shew you how the Holy Ghost has followed and will
follow up this first beginning, convincing and con
verting nation after nation and age after age till ,
the whole earth is hereafter to be covered, if only
for a time still to be covered with the knowledge of 1
the Lord.29
28nopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, pp. 70-71.
29Hopkins, Sermons and Devotional Writings, p. 75.
224
The poem ends, then, not on a note of dejection or despond
ency over man's previous rejection of God's redeemed uni
verse as a means of bringing him to God, but on a note of
rising jubilation: "the Holy Ghost over the bent/ World
broods with warm breast and with ahi bright wings."
Eleanor Ruggles sees in this final image a possible echo
of Walt Whitman:
There is present in Hopkins' poetry one hint of
Whitman's direct influence. Somewhere he may have
seen or heard the American's phrase quoted and then
forgotten it. Possibly their thoughts seized on the
same words independently. Hopkins had never read
Democratic Vistas wherein Whitman offers his concep
tion of Christ, a figure 'with bent head, brooding
love and peace, like a dove. . . .' Yet Hopkins'
sonnet God's Grandeur, belonging to his Welsh period,
declares what seems to be a shadow, a reflection of
Whitman's image as he describes the Holy Ghost, the
Comforter in the form of a dove who
over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright
wings.30
If Whitman was Hopkins' source for the poem's closing
image, and William D. Templeman gives evidence of Whitman's
influence upon Hopkins,31 then this image was apparently
used by Hopkins to fuse the work of Christ, the Comforter,
30Qerard Manley Hopkins: A Life, p. 224.
31"Hopkins and Whitman: Evidences of Influence and
Echoes," Philological Quarterly, xxxiii (January 1954), 52.
with its continuing renewal in the work of the Holy Ghost,
the Comforter.
W. H. Gardner sees a possible echo of Milton in this
closing image but with a significant difference:
Despite the worst efforts of collective humanity,
inanimate nature still speaks directly of that
informing Spirit which, as Milton said, was present
from the first:
'and with mighty wings overspread,
Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast abyss
And mad'st it pregnant.'
(Paradise Lost, I, 19-22)
Consciously or not, Hopkins has echoed Milton; . . .
but with a set purpose and with a significant change
of tense: the process of creation, he says, is still
going on. . . .
The last lines of the sonnet are not concerned
with the evangelizing of the world in the conven
tional sense, but rather with the direct 'instress1
of God through nature. Nothing in the poem is more
important than that seemingly unimportant 'ah!' in
the last phrase of all; it expresses the surprise
and delight with which the man of single eye and
pure heart greets every new manifestation of 'the
dearest freshness', the immanence of God 'deep down
things' . 32
Gardner emphasizes a most important point. The Holy Ghost
in Milton's poem "sat'st"; in Hopkins' He "broods." The
former verb is in the past tense to indicate an action com
pleted; the latter verb is in the present tense indicating
32Gardner, II, 232-233.
226
an action still going on. The Holy Ghost completing the
redemptive work of Christ is still going on, and through
Him the "stress" of Christ is being felt in the world. The
just man sees this but not as consistently and consciously
as he should; the unjust man sees it very dimly if at all.
As Hopkins had written in "The Wreck of the Deutschland,"
"And here the faithful waver, the faithless fable and
miss."
The TONE of "God's Grandeur" begins with the enthusi
asm of a mind that has just grasped an old, important
truth, but grasped it in a new and personal way.
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed.
This enthusiasm, however, soon gives way to the painful
reality that for many men, unjust and just alike, this
truth is obscured by the routine and monotony of lives
spent eking out an existence.
Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with
toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the
soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
The near despair of these lines is dispelled, however, by
227
the recalling of a well known but unapplied truth, namely,
that the vitality of external nature after the redemption
is deep and incapable of being eradicated by man.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things.
The renewed enthusiasm generated by this thought grows even
greater when it is further realized that the source of this
vitality is God, the Holy Ghost, infinitely beyond the
reach of puny man. And further, with at least the just
man's realization that it is the specific duty of the Holy
Ghost to shed light and warmth on a dark and cold universe,
the poem rises to its closing crescendo of renewed, because
better founded, enthusiasm.
This analysis of "God's Grandeur" has now been made
here. What conclusions can be drawn from this analysis, in
relation to the concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ"?
It is true that man, even the unjust man who wantonly
devastates and ravishes external nature, is the primary and
principal recipient of the light and warmth of the Holy
Ghost's grace. But, more centrally to this poem, it seems
to me, external nature receives that light, warmth, and
guiding comfort— the renewal of that inner vitality which
keeps it true to its redeemed nature as an instrument
capable of bringing men closer to God. This is the role
which external nature plays in the "Mystical Body of
Christ." Nature, unlike man, always responds to the enliv
ening force of the Holy Ghost. This is the source of its
inner vitality, "the dearest freshness deep down things,"
which wayward, misguided man can punily scratch at but will
never again destroy. In "Hurrahing in Harvest" Hopkins
indicated that the inner vitality of nature manifested to
the world the presence of Christ in nature; in "God's
Grandeur" the source of that vitality is shown to be the
Holy Ghost, the principle of life in the "Mystical Body of
Christ"; and thus the reader is given assurance that exter
nal nature will, now that it is redeemed, remain ever true
to its "self."
Gardner suggests that "Ribblesdale" is an offshoot of
"God's Grandeur." Both poems "present, under varying
aspects, the contrast between the graceful, seasonal renewal
of vegetative life and that 'graceless growth' which
unregenerated man calls 'material civilization'."33 it was
to "Ribblesdale" that Hopkins attached the quotation from
St. Paul (Romans 8:19-23) which might be applied with equal
33Gardner, II, 245.
229
validity to "God's Grandeur." St. Paul had written:
19 For the earnest expectation of the creature
waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not
willingly, but by reason of him who subjected the
same in hope; 21 Because the creature itself also
shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption
into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and
travaileth in pain together until now. 23 And not
only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-
fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within
ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the
redemption of our body. (Romans 8:19-23)
The explication of this text which Hopkins had pondered and
which seems to have furnished the background for "God's
Grandeur," is given in A Catholic Commentary of Holy Scrip
ture. The explication is illuminating in several ways:
19-22 The Longing of Irrational Nature for Glorifi
cation and the Holy Ghost dwelling in the Christian
Soul— It is unusual for St. Paul to give his atten
tion to irrational nature. But when in 19-22 he
voices its agony under the burden of its age-long
curse we need not think of a sudden flight into poetry.
The ideas here expressed are biblical throughout.
That irrational nature was affected by man's (first)
sin is clearly stated in Gen 3:17 f.; and its share
in man's redemption follows no less clearly from such
messianic prophesies as Is 65:17-25; 66:22. For the
same idea in the NT see Mt 19:28; Ac 3:21; 2 Pet
3:13; Apoc 21:1. . , . There remains however some
thing original and unique in the way in which St.
Paul here personifies these two Biblical doctrines
and argues from them to the greatness of the Chris
tian glorification as that 'divine event to which the
whole creation moves'.
What is the burden from which irrational creation
longs to be redeemed? St. Paul calls it her enforced
230
submission to . . . purposelessness, senselessness,
vanity. 20. This has been understood . . . as its
(a) moral abuse by sinful men; (b) as the disturbance
of the harmony of creation, or rather the absence of
fullness of harmony and order = the absence of some
thing that should be there; i.e. in Biblical language
= the curse of Gen 3:17; in theological terminology =
the consequences of original sin. Of these explana
tions the second seems the more satisfactory; the
first is too narrow. . . .
What has the longing of irrational nature for
glorification, 19-22, to do with the Holy Spirit
dwelling in the Christian soul, 23-27? The two voices
agree in the longing they express, and thus become
supplementary to each other.34
The Commentary makes these important points clear for this
study: (1) Creation fell in man's fall and was a sharer in
the redemption which followed; (2) there is a personifica
tion of nature in St. Paul's writing about external nature
as there is in Hopkins' own writing about external nature;
(3) the burden from which redeemed external nature longs to
be freed is the moral abuse by man, in a narrow sense, and
the return to its former state of harmony, in a wider
sense; (4) the Holy Ghost plays similar roles in the even
tual glorification of both man and external nature.
The conclusion seems justified, therefore, from both
the analysis of "God's Grandeur" and the insights offered
34Dom Bernard Orchard, ed. (London, 1951), pp. 1065-
1066.
by A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture on the text of
Romans 8:19-23 which furnishes the background for the poem,
that the Holy Ghost's role in the "Mystical Body of Christ"
is to continue the redemptive work begun by Christ in man
and in external nature. The Holy Ghost does this by giving
His comforting light and warmth of grace to man; and by
giving the same comforting light and warmth to external
nature, thus keeping it true to its redeemed nature as a
source of abounding energy and as an instrument for man's
use in finding the Creator and Redeemer of the universe.
CONCLUSION
In this study investigation has been made of several
early and late poems by Hopkins, in order to determine
their use of the concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ."
Certain conclusions can now be drawn.
Altogether nine poems of Hopkins' mature period (1875-
1889) have been studied in relation to the concept of the
"Mystical Body of Christ" by Sister Mary Adroita Hart^ and
Father Robert Boyle.^ The seven poems which I have select
ed for my study span Hopkins' poetic career, which began in
1864 and ended with his death in 1889; "Barnfloor and
Winepress" (1865), "Rosa Mystica" (187?), "God’s Grandeur"
(1877), "Hurrahing in Harvest" (1877), "The Caged Skylark"
l"The Christocentric Theme in Gerard Manley Hopkins'
'The Wreck of the Deutschland,'" Catholic University of
America (Washington, 1952), unpublished doctoral disserta
tion. In this dissertation Sister Mary Hart traces the
concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ" in "The Wreck of
the Deutschland."
2Metapkor in Hopkins (Chapel Hill, North Carolina,
1960). In this book Father Boyle examines eight of
Hopkins' major poems of his mature period (1874-1889) in
relation to the concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ."
232
(1877), "As Kingfishers Catch Fire, Dragonflies Draw
Flame" (1881), and "St. Alphonsus Rodriguez" (1888). When
the findings of this study are added to those of Sister
Mary Adroita Hart and Father Robert Boyle, therefore, the
conclusion may be drawn that the concept of the "Mystical
Body of Christ" was consistently present in Hopkins' poems
both in his early (1864-1874) and in his later (1875-1889)
poetic periods. Hopkins may have been unconscious of how
extensively the concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ"
found its way into his work, but the evidence adduced by
the studies of Sister Mary Adroita Hart and Father Robert
Boyle as well as this present study shows clearly that the
concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ" was present in
Hopkins' poetry.
In this study I have found that the concept of the
"Mystical Body of Christ" in Hopkins' early and later poems
functioned as a symbol. The term "symbol" was used in this
study in three senses. First, the term "symbol" was used
to indicate a concrete object or specific aspect which
functions in the poem itself and at the same time refers
to another object or aspect. Secondly, it was used to
indicate any concept which recurs and persists in the whole
body of Hopkins' poetry. Thirdly, the term "symbol" was
234
used to suggest a sacramental view of the universe.
The term "symbol" when used in the first sense just
mentioned means that the reference to any aspect of
Catholicism in a poem, whether the aspect is a person or
a mystery, refers ultimately to the concept of the "Mysti
cal Body of Christ." Therefore, the mention of "Christ"
in "Rosa Mystica" or "Hurrahing in Harvest" refers not only
to the physical Christ Who Lived for thirty-three years
and died by crucifixion but also to the mystical Christ as
well. "Christ" functions in the poem as a "concrete
object" but at the same time "Christ" means "another
object," namely, the "Mystical Body of Christ." The same
thing is true when the Blessed Virgin Mary or the Holy
Ghost is mentioned in a poem, or when a mystery such as
the Incarnation of Christ or the Divine Maternity of Mary
is mentioned in a poem. Each such person or mystery, while
functioning in the poem, refers and can be related to the
concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ."
The term "symbol" when used in this study in the
second sense mentioned above, referring to the same con
cept, means that the concept of the "Mystical Body of
Christ," functioning as a symbol, recurs and persists in
the poems selected for this study. The conclusions drawn
235
from the complete analyses of the poems considered indicate
clearly that the concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ"
did recur and persist in Hopkins' poetry, not in just one
or two poems or at one or another period of his life but
rather consistently in numerous poems over more than twenty
years of his poetic career.
The term "symbol" when used in this study in the third
sense mentioned above, referring to the same concept,
means that Hopkins saw in the activity of external nature
and the activity of man the underlying and invisible stress
of Christ still living in the universe in His "Mystical
Body." Hopkins saw in the visible aspects of external
nature such as a harvest field, in a visible event of human
history, such as the sinking of the Deutschland, or in the
visible life of an individual person such as St. Alphonsus
Rodriguez, the inner significance of Christ still living
mystically or mysteriously in the universe. The inner
significance under the various visible aspects of the uni
verse mentioned in the poems of this study was found in
the concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ," where all
the aspects or facets of existence possess a unity.
The term "symbol" as I have just used it in the third
sense mentioned means, in effect, that Hopkins had a
236
sacramental view of the universe. Yvor Winters, conclud
ing his remarks on "The Windhover," and more specifically
on the word "buckle" in that poem, wrote, "To defend this
sort of thing [religious interpretation of the word
"buckle"] with pretentious remarks about the 'sacramental
view of nature' is merely foolish, no matter how numerous,
pious, and ancient the precedents which one may be in a
position to cite."^ Thomas P. McDonnell answers Winters'
objection to Hopkins' "sacramental view of nature" by
stating, "I do not so much fear for the piety of ancient
precedents as I do for a method of criticism that will
arbitrarily exclude from its considerations one of the
major concepts of the work of art it pretends to examine.
It would make as much sense to refuse to discuss The Book
of Job, for instance, because it is too 'religious'."4 I
agree with Mr. McDonnell. I go a step farther, however,
and say that a complete and serious study of Hopkins'
poetry cannot omit recognition of the concept of the
"Mystical Body of Christ" used as a symbol to unify the
diverse aspects of the universe which appear in his poems.
O
JThe Function of Criticism (London, 1957), p. 134.
4"Hopkins as a Sacramental Poet: A Reply to Yvor
Winters," Renascence, xiv (Autumn 1961), 33.
237
The reader should use Hopkins’ view of the universe if he
is to enjoy and appreciate Hopkins' poetry. As W. H.
Gardner states:
Consciously or unconsciously, the poet aims at
expressing universal experience in terms of his own
experience; and as certain beliefs and doctrines
form an integral part of that personal experience—
are, as it were, the rough-hewn symbols of it— we
should be as illogical in denying him the use of
these materials as in denying him the common symbols
of language.5
This study has shown that Hopkins used the concept of the
"Mystical Body of Christ" consistently in the poems I have
analyzed. It is a "rough-hewn symbol" in these poems. The
various aspects of the universe and human existence men
tioned in the seven selected poems are better understood
and the poems more fully appreciated if they are related to
the concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ" acting as a
symbol in all three senses in the poems. The sacramental
view of the universe was part of Hopkins' poetic vision.
The reader can fail to be aware of this view only at the
risk of missing a great deal of the richness of Hopkins'
poems.
In this study it has been explained that the "Mystical
Body of Christ" is Christ, the Head, living in His members.
5Gardner, I, 66.
238
The biblical basis for the explanation of this doctrine was
found principally in the Epistles of St. Paul and incident
ally in the Gospel of St. John. The four aspects of the
"Mystical Body of Christ" which were singled out for
closer study have been explained: external nature, man, the
Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Holy Ghost. Each of these
aspects of reality has been related to the concept of the
"Mystical Body of Christ."
The concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ," with its
basic idea of Christ as the Head and all just men as His
members, and with its four major aspects mentioned above,
has been found to have been discussed in Hopkins' prose
writings: his sermons, devotional writings, and letters.
Then, the presence of the concept of the "Mystical Body of
Christ" has been pointed out in each of the poems analyzed
in this work, and an indication has been given of how an
understanding of this concept helps to clarify the full
meaning of the poem.
"Barnfloor and Winepress" contains four basic and
important ideas about the concept of the "Mystical Body of
Christ." First, the poem indicates the oneness-in-
multiplicity in the "Mystical Body of Christ." Although
there are many members, they are all united in one body.
239
Secondly, the poem indicates that Christ is the Head of the
"Mystical Body" because He was and is its Savior and first-
fruits. Thirdly, "Barnfloor and Winepress" indicates that
the members of the "Mystical Body of Christ" must suffer
the death of their sinful natures in imitation of Christ's
suffering and death to His natural body, in order for them
to become incorporated into Christ's "Mystical Body."
Fourthly, "Barnfloor and Winepress" presents the idea that
once they become members of the "Mystical Body" men live
the life of Christ and in a certain mysterious sense become
in action identified with Christ.
The study of "Hurrahing in Harvest," which treats of
external nature's relation to the concept of the "Mystical
Body of Christ," has shown that Hopkins indicates that
external nature in its redeemed state mirrors Christ its
Savior still living in the universe. External nature ful
fills its role in the "Mystical Body of Christ" by mirror
ing in its never-failing inner vitality Christ, its Savior,
and in so doing offers itself as an instrument to be used
by men for bringing them closer to their Redeemer.
"As Kingfishers Catch Fire, Dragonflies Draw Flame"
has been a transitional poem in this study. The poem
treats both external nature and the just man. Thus the
240
poem bridges the gap between a discussion of external
nature in "Hurrahing in Harvest" and a discussion of the
just man in "St. Alphonsus Rodriguez." From the study of
"As Kingfishers Catch Fire, Dragonflies Draw Flame" it
has been shown that all creation manifested its inner nature
by its external activity and in doing this both external
nature and man proclaimed their selfhood and individuality.
This selfhood and individuality of all creation is not lost
because it is united with Christ in the "Mystical Body,"
but rather it is saved and is brought to its highest
perfection.
"St. Alphonsus Rodriguez," it has been shown, concerns
itself completely with one just man, that is, one incor
porated member of the "Mystical Body of Christ." However,
this one just man is an example of the potential of every
just man. The study made of this poem has indicated that
the poem suggests that the just man often lives a humble,
hidden life and yet, even in this humble, hidden life he
can achieve real heroism worthy of Christian honor,
because as one who bears the "brand marks" of Christ in
his soul he is identified with Christ and, therefore, his
monotonous, tedious, daily actions have an inestimable
value.
241
The analysis of "The Caged Skylark" has led to the
conclusion that faith in the just man's resurrection in a
glorified body ought to be a source of comfort to such a
man as he lives out his life as a member of the "Mystical
Body of Christ." With the final resurrection of his mortal
body as a goal, the just man can realize that the limita
tions of a mortal body and the "drudgery day-labouring-out
life's age" are but transitory aspects of his full life.
With the final resurrection of his mortal body as a goal,
the just man can view all the sufferings of this life and
death itself as merely necessary preliminaries to eternal
beatitude with Christ.
The analysis of "Rosa Mystica" continued the consider
ation of the just man in relation to the "Mystical Body of
Christ," as it considered the role of the Blessed Virgin
Mary in that "Mystical Body." Two conclusions were drawn
from the examination of "Rosa Mystica." The first conclu
sion is that the Blessed Virgin Mary plays a vital role in
the "Mystical Body of Christ" both as the mother of the
members of the physical Christ and as the mother of the
members of the mystical Christ. The second conclusion is
that all the prerogatives and privileges of Mary derive
ultimately from her being the mother of Christ, the God-man.
242
And, since Christ is the Head of the "Mystical Body," Mary
as His mother derives all her prerogatives and privileges
from her relation to Christ as Head of the "Mystical Body."
In the "Mystical Body of Christ" the several mysteries of
Mary's Immaculate Conception, Divine Maternity, Mediatrix
of all graces, and Assumption into Heaven find a source of
unity.
The complete analysis of "God's Grandeur" has led to
the conclusion that the Holy Ghost's role in the "Mystical
Body of Christ" is to continue the redemptive work begun
by Christ in both man and external nature. The Holy Ghost
fulfills this role by giving the comforting light and
warmth of grace to man; and by giving the same comforting
light and warmth to external nature and thus keeping it
true to its redeemed nature as a source of abounding vital
ity and also as an instrument for man's use in finding the
Redeemer of the universe.
Taken together, the above conclusions drawn from this
study about the basic concept of the "Mystical Body of
Christ" and its four principal aspects, support the
assumption that Hopkins gradually increased throughout
much of his life in his understanding of the Catholic
Church, the "Mystical Body of Christ," which he embraced
at the age of twenty-two. Sister Mary Adroita Hart sug
gests that the struggle of the narrator in the first four
stanzas of "The Wreck of the Deutschland" is Hopkins' strug
gle at the time of his conversion to the Catholic Church.6
Hopkins' entrance into the Catholic Church followed a
crucial decision in his life. As Austin Warren writes,
"The crisis of his [Hopkins'] life lay, without doubt, in
the passage from Anglicanism to Catholicism and the adja
cent decision to become a priest and a Jesuit.That the
decision to enter the Catholic Church weighed on his mind
is evident both in Hopkins' letters and in some of his
poems of 1865 and 1866, including "Barnfloor and Winepress."
The point is that from the time he accepted membership in
the Catholic Church, the "Mystical Body of Christ," Hopkins
sought to understand it more and more fully. This progres
sive and unfolding understanding has been traced in
Hopkins' prose writings and in a selection of his early and
later poems. There is evidence, therefore, that the con
cept of the "Mystical Body of Christ" remained important to
6"The Christocentric Theme in Gerard Manley Hopkins'
'The Wreck of the Deutschland,'" Catholic University of
America (Washington, 1952), p. 45.
^"Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)," in Gerard Manley
Hopkins by the Kenyon Critics (Norfolk, 1945), p. 7.
244
Hopkins from the time of his entrance into the Catholic
Church and that the concept of this "Mystical Body of
Christ" is present in his writings.
The conclusions drawn from this study can be important
for all serious readers of Hopkins' poetry. Each individ
ual poem considered in this study can be taken as a unit
expressing a clear idea. Further, each aspect of Christi
anity, whether a person or a mystery, can also be consid
ered solely in relation to the poem in which the person or
mystery appears. However, when the individual poems and
the various aspects of Christianity which appear in them
are considered as part of Hopkins' complete work, prose as
well as poetry, they find a unity in the all-embracing con
cept of the "Mystical Body of Christ." Finally, both the
prose writings and the poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins
considered in this study indicate his consistent, although
perhaps sometimes unconscious, concern with this all-
embracing concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ," a
concept so pervasive that there is justification for the
statement that the concept of the "Mystical Body of Christ"
is a symbol in these selected poems.
b i b l i o g r a p h y
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Empson, William. Seven Types of Ambiguity. London, 1947.
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Summer, 1960.
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cator, 22: Item 54, March, 1964.
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New York, 1950.
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Creator Franz, Louis Joseph (author)

Core Title The Concept Of The 'Mystical Body Of Christ' In Selected Poems By Gerard Manley Hopkins

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program English

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Literature, Modern,OAI-PMH Harvest

Language English

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Advisor Templeman, William D. (committee chair), Freeman, Ronald E. (committee member), O'Neil, Edward N. (committee member)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c18-107734

Unique identifier UC11359955

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Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

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