The Windhover
I CAUGHT this morning morning’s minion, king-
dom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate’s heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird,—the achieve of; the mastery of the thing!
Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!
No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.
-- The Windhover, Gerard Manley Hopkins
Blimey.
2 Comments:
Wish I had such command of the language as to pen such as this. Makes one actually visualise the bird in its flight as one reads... the words disappear and the imagery arises.
Powerful, that.
Yes. And how good is that last stanza?
"Blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion."
Wish I could write like that.
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