Chapter 7
The Cogito of t h e Poems
Hopkins begins his sonnet ''The
caught."
Windhover" with t h e expression,
"1
This signifies t h e poet's consciousness of the falcon's individuality.
The o c t a v e is t h e record of t h e sensitive, sensuous, response of t h e poet
t o t h e manifestation of t h e glorious selfhood of t h e bird.
The majesty of
t h e bird1s flight blooms in t h e vivid consciousness of t h e poet.
What he
i s able t o "catch" is not only t h e sight of t h e bird's. hovering, but also t h e
consciousness of its individuality.
the process.
T h e unity of perception is sustained in
The o c t a v e of t h e poem is reproduced below for easy reference:
1 CAUGHT this morning morning's minion, king-
dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn
Falcon, in
llis riding
Of t h e rolling level underneath hiin s t e a d y air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon t h e rein of a wimpling wing
In his esctasy! then off, off forth on swing,
As a s k a t e ' s heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: t h e hurl and
gliding
My h e a r t in hiding
Rebuffed t h e big wind.
Stirred for a bird,-the
achieve of, t h e mastery of t h e thing!
(Poems 69)
The falcon is at once
"morning's
dauphin," and "dapple-dawn-drawn."
in t h e poet's consciousness.
minion," "kingdom
of daylight's
All t h e different a t t r i b u t e s a t t a i n unity
The falcon is engaged in high adventure.
He
is steady in s p i t e of t h e rolling level underneath him; h e rung admirably
Encyclopedia 963).
--
-
Hopkins's profound involvement with and d e e p response
t o his consciousness i s evident in t h e following lines:
Prepared by BeeHive Digital Concepts Cochin for Mahatma Gandhi University Kottayam
M V heart i n hirl:..-
upon the rein of a wimpling wing.
gliding rebuffed the big wind.
He is off forth on swing; his hurl and
All these activities are unified in the per-
ception of the poet, as a vivid consciousness of the bird's individuality.
An important aspect of
Hopkins's consciousness of the hovering of
the falcon is that he tries to defamiliarize this experience.
be categorized as an ordinary bird-watching.
It should not
He wants to secure the ex-
perience against the dangers of famil~arization. Victor Shklovsky tells us
that original artists everywhere are aware of this danger: "Habitualization
devours works, clothes, furniture, one's wife, and the fear of war.
...
And art exists that one may recover the sensation of life; it exists to make
one feel things, to make the stone, stony" (24).
techniques available to keep at bay familiarization.
devices in good poetry.
artistic trade-mark-that
As Shklovsky says:
'I.
Hopkins employs all the
One comes across such
. . we
find everywhere the
is, we find material obviously created to remove
the automatism of perception
. . ."
(25).
Hopkins's expression "I caughtn
is a good illustration of this point.
A s phenomen~logists point out, the formation of consciousness of an
"aesthetic object1' is an active involvement as well as passive reception.
According to Kevin Kerrane, "Dufrenne points out the paradox in aesthetic
experience of a psychological detachment co-existing with a profound involvement, and he sees this as an affirmative response of the whole self" (Princeton
Encyclopedia 963).
Hopkins's profound involvement with and deep response
to his consciousness is evident in the following lines:
My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird,-the
achieve of, the mastery of the thing!
(Poems 69)
Prepared by BeeHive Digital Concepts Cochin for Mahatma Gandhi University Kottayam
Out of the consciousness of the glorious flight of the bird evolves the consciousness of his response t o that initial consciousness.
his whole-hearted
Consciousness of
appreciation of the "achieve" and "masteryu of the thing
takes place under t h e shadow of conflict.
This moves the consciousness
in an entirely new dimension.
The perception of the individuality of the bird constitutes one polarity
of the structure of the poem.
sustains this polarity.
structure.
The poet's consciousness of this individuality
Imagination also is involved in the formation of this
The perception of the sensuous qualities of the bird g e t s polarized
under the influence of the concept of individuality.
Therefore the structure
formation that is manifested takes place under t h e influence of the concept
of individuality.
Consciousness unifies perception; but what unifies conscious-
ness and leads it to a structure is a concept.
Under the impact of a concept
a "re-formation"
This is essentially an aesthetic
process.
of
of consciousness takes place.
According to Kerrane, "Fritz Kauflnan defines a r t a s a reformation
consciousness,
and thus a s essentially
phenomenological in converting
'the natural attitude toward the experienced world' into a meditative attitude
toward one's experiencing of the world (Princeton 961).
The contemplation of t h e "aesthetic object" leading one to a meditative
mood is strikingly relevant t o t h e poetry of Hopkins.
As i t was stated
earlier, consciousness moves in a new direction in the sestet of "The Windi
hover."
The need of the poet t o surrender individuality to a transcendental
reality, namely, God, moves his poetry into a new dimension giving an evolving
character to the poetic structure.
Perception of this aspect of t h e structure
partly depends on t h e sympathy of t h e reader t o the Christocentric theology
Prepared by BeeHive Digital Concepts Cochin for Mahatma Gandhi University Kottayam
of Hopkins.
The consciousness of t h e poet expands into a transcendental
realm where t h e irreconcilable e l e m e n t s of t h e spatio-temporal
reconciled, since they remain transcended.
world are
This transformation i s sketched
in t h e sestet of t h e poem:
Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
Buckle!
AND t h e f i r e t h a t breaks
from t h e e then, billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, 0 my cnevalier!
No wonder of it: sheer pldd makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, a h my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermilion.
(Poems 6 9 )
It w a s s e e n in a previous chapter t h a t t h e e n t r y of the transcendental
gives a s t r u c t u r a l support to Hopkinsls poems.
transcendental e l e m e n t makes t h e s t r u c t u r e
structuralism and phenomenology.
of this a r e profound.
outgrow
certain
of t h e
t e n e t s of
The a e s t h e t i c and philosophical implications
It gives t h e s t r u c t u r e a non-rational character.
uncanny expressions "Buckle!"
cendental realm.
But t h e presence
The
and "AND" launch his s t r u c t u r e into a trans-
The transformed individuality of t h e falcon i s a "billion"
t i m e s told lovelier.
According t o Christopher Norris,
one of
Derridals chief objections
t o s t r u c t u r e i s t h a t it closes off "freeplaytl (Derrida 140). The transcendental
basis of Hopkins's poetic s t r u c t u r e opens up room for play.
But Derrida
rnight object t o t h e transcendental basis of s t r u c t u r e since he does not a c c e p t
a transcendental organizing principle outside t h e structure.
Nevertheless
t h e possibility of "play" sustains a n uncanny c h a r a c t e r which i s d e a r t o many
post-structuralist thinkers.
Prepared by BeeHive Digital Concepts Cochin for Mahatma Gandhi University Kottayam
By moving from the perception of the individuality of the falcon to
its transformation in Christ, Hopkins is trying to reveal the visible as well
as the hidden reality.
theory of perception.
This holds a striking resemblance to Merleau-Ponty's
Paul de Man explains it thus:
He describes all expression as being a t the same time disclosure
as well as dissimulation; the function of art and literature would
be to reveal the reality that is hidden as well as that which
is visible.
The world of the imagination then becomes a more
complete, more totalized reality than that of everyday experience,
a three-dimensional reality that would add a factor of depth
to the flat surface
with which we are usually confronted.
(Blindness and Insight 33-34)
The structure in Hopkins leads one out of it into non-rational, mystic,
moving experience.
Such an experience is a t the heart of a great work
of art and is evoked in the mind of the perceiver of that work.
Communi-
cation of such an experience involves structure, which is an unavoidable
limitation.
The deconstructive criticism often speaks about "the self-decon-
structive structure" of
literature.
structure does not deconstruct itself.
character without destroying it.
-
Hopkins's transcendence incorporated
Transcendence
gives it an uncanny
It sustains and fulfills the structure giving
it an ever-growing richness and dynamism.
Georges Poulet, in his thought-provoking essay "The Self and Other
in Critical Consciousness," speaks about the significance of the
cogito o f .
the writer: "No matter what sort of text 1 read, a t the instant I began
to sense the effect of a concept in it, I found the same origin in almost
each line and the same course running frorn this sourcet1 (81).
Prepared by BeeHive Digital Concepts Cochin for Mahatma Gandhi University Kottayam
He adds later:
To experience anew in one's own mind the cogito of a writer
or a philosopher means to rediscover the manner of thinking
and feeling, means to see how this thinking and feeling originate
and assume form and what obstacles they encounter.
It means
also to rediscover the purpose of a life which takes shape out
of the experience of the individual consciousness. (82)
Applying this idea of Poulet to Hopkinsls poetry, we find that many of his
poems begin with the concept of inoividuality and move on to synthesis.
In the very opening lines of the poem "Henry Purcell," the poet says that
his interest is in "the arch-especial" spirit of Henry Purcell.
Whereas other
musicians expressed a mood or meaning, he gave expression to his own individuality which attracts the poet:
Not mood in him or meaning, proud fire or sacred fear,
Or love, or pity, or all that sweet notes not his might nursle:
It is the forged feature finds me; it is the rehearsal
Of own, of abrupt self there so thrusts on, so throngs the ear.
(Poems 80)
The poet's attention is focussed on the "forged feature," and the rehearsal
of the abrupt self of Purcell throngs his ear.
His appreciation for the ex-
pression of individuality by Purcell runs to the end of the poem.
Purcell
is immortalized through this poem for having expressed individuality through
his music.
In a letter to Bridges, Hopkins wrote about this sonnet:
The sestet of the Purcell sonnet is not so clearly worked out
as 1 could wish.
The thought is that as the seabird opening
his wings with a whiff of wind in your face means the whirr
Prepared by BeeHive Digital Concepts Cochin for Mahatma Gandhi University Kottayam
of t h e motion, but also unaware gives you a whiff of knowledge
about his plumage, t h e marking of which s t a m p s his species,
t h a t h e does n o t mean, so Purcell, seemingly intent only on
t h e thought o r feeling he is to express o r call out, incidentally
lets you remark the individualising marks of his own genius.
-
(LB 83)
One does not find tne usual s t r u c t u r a l balance of Hopkinsls poetry
in this poem.
The "forged f e a t u r e t t evokes admiration; but it does not g o
down t o t h e depths of t h e hidden conflict in t h e poet regarding individuality,
as it o f t e n happens in poems like "The Windhover."
Subsequently, t h e move-
m e n t towards synthesis i s not s e e n in t h e poem.
The passing glimpse of t h e unique individuality of persons is beautifully'
brought o u t in t h e poem, "The Lantern o u t of Doors."
e v e r y day.
Men g o by t h e poet
They are made unique e i t h e r by beauty bright, o r by qualities
o f mind o r body.
He wonders where they are bound for.
t h e poet a t t a i n s a meditative tone.
This
cogito of
He thinks t h a t d e a t h or distance would
soon consume t h e m a n d they will be soon o u t of his mind.
But his faith
t e l l s him t h a t t h e r e is o n e who constantly cares for them.
These unique
individualities which are led away like cattle t o t h e slaughter house of d e a t h
are redeemed by Christ; their "first, fast, last friend."
Hopkins had d e e p love and concern f o r nature.
(Poems 7 1 ) .
Unlike some o t h e r
Victorian poets, his a t t e n t i o n is focused not only on nature's beauty, but
also on all the dangers t h a t threatened t h e existence of t h a t beauty.
He
had d e e p concern for e a c h individual s c e n e in nature as these lines tell:
Prepared by BeeHive Digital Concepts Cochin for Mahatma Gandhi University Kottayam
Strokes of havoc unselve
The sweet especial scene,
Rural scene, a rural scene,
Sweet especial rural scene.
(Poems 79)
He was a pioneer environmentalist too:
0 if we but knew what we do
When we delve or hewHack and rack the growing green! (Poems 78)
He foresaw the harm industrialization would do to nature.
He was acutely
aware of the delicate nature of the ecological system, and wanted to protect
it like the pupil of the eye:
Since .country is so tender
To touch, her being so slender,
That, like this sleek and seeing ball
But a prick will make no eye at all (Poems 78)
He felt deep sorrow whenever a tree was destroyed, partly because of the
loss that would do to nature and partly because of the inscape he would
lose.
When he saw an ashtree felled, he wrote poignantly:
The ashtree growing in the corner of the garden was felled.
It was lopped first: I heard the sound and looking out and seeing
it maimed there came a t that moment a great pang and I wished
to die and not to see the inscapes of the world destroyed any
more.
(JP
- 230)
The poem "God's Grandeur," as the title indicates, is about the glory
of God.
The very first line gives the cogito of the poet that the world
is charged with the grandeur of Clod.
Hopkins was familiar with the pioneering
Prepared by BeeHive Digital Concepts Cochin for Mahatma Gandhi University Kottayam
e f f o r t s of t h e experimenters of his day t o produce e l e c t r i c charges. God's
world, like a charged battery, will give f o r t h his glory.
He goes on t o
illustrate by means of t w o similes how t h e glory of God i s manifested through
c e r t a i n activities.
ning.
A humble tin foil, once shaken, will f l a m e o u t like light-
In t h e second simile, t h e o o z e of oil g a t h e r s t o a greatness through
crushing.
Crushing i s a painful process which t h e oil-seeds had to undergo
t o r e v e a l i t s greatness as well as t h e greatness of God.
(Critics have pointed
o u t t h a t t h e oil mentioned is olive oil which is used f o r s a c r a m e n t a l purposes
in t h e church).
This f u r t h e r illustrates t h e point t h a t t h e ooze of oil reveals
t h e greatness of God by becoming instruments of his sacraments.
T h e poet develops t h e idea of Ncrushing" o r suffering f u r t h e r in t h e
third and fourth lines of t h e poem.
If crushing brings o u t t h e b e s t in oil
seeds and reveals God's glory, t h e r e is no need t o complain about sufferings.
One finds a slight s h i f t in t h e cogito in t h e n e x t line: t h e dirty, smokeridden, squalor-filled
industrial towns of
a n y assertion of t h e grandeur of God.
towns are full of squalor.
Hopkinsls England s e e m t o deny
T h e poet readily a g r e e s t h a t t h e
He onomatopoeically brings it o u t too:
all is seared with trade; bleared, s m e a r e d with toil
..
.I1
(Poems 66).
T h e sestet regains t h e optimistic n o t e of t h e opening lines.
of all t h e d a m a g e t h a t man has done, t h e n a t u r e is never spent.
lives t h e d e a r e s t freshness d e e p down things"
snoke-ridden,
". . .
(Poems 66).
In s p i t e
"There
Beyond t h e
"black West" t h e poet's f a i t h makes him see t h e promise of
a dawn, brought about by t h e world brooding of t h e IIoly Spirit with warm
breast and bright wings.
Prepared by BeeHive Digital Concepts Cochin for Mahatma Gandhi University Kottayam