The Windhover GM Hopkins poem analysis

The Windhover by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Themes

• The beauty of creation and the natural world
• Celebration of nature
• God's divine power
• Mankind's connection with nature
• Nature as a restorative force

Style

• Intensely detailed imagery
• Complex language
• Compound-words (e.g. "dapple-dawn-drawn")
• Euphonic sound effects (e.g. alliteration, sibilance)
• Caesura (e.g. exclamation marks)
• Enjambment (e.g. running on sentences without punctuation)

Imagery and Symbolism

• The windhover (falcon) represents beauty, power, and freedom
• The natural world is depicted as majestic and awe-inspiring
• Light and darkness are used to contrast beauty and ugliness
• The windhover's movement is described in vivid detail, emphasizing its connection to nature

Poetic Devices

• Anadiplosis (repetition of words or phrases, e.g. "off, off")
• Ellipsis (omission of words, e.g. "I caught...")
• Simile (e.g. "As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend")
• Hyperbole (exaggeration, e.g. "a billion times told lovelier")
• Internal rhyme (e.g. "gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion")

Tone and Emotions

• The poem conveys a sense of wonder, awe, and ecstasy
• The speaker is deeply moved by the beauty of the windhover
• The poem expresses a sense of connection to nature and God's power