Pied Beauty and The Windhover

Gerard Manley Hopkins, who was an eminent poet of Victorian era, wrote several poems of which most were dedicated to the divine power or god. ‘Pied Beauty and The windhover’ are two of his greatest literary creation that grabbed lot attention and were praised by many scholars and critics. In both the poems Hopkins, drew a vivid picture through the use of classic literary language of common facts that gave it a unique shape.

In the first poem ‘Pied Beauty’ he signified the dappled or spotted aspects in god’s creation. The poem began with an eye-catching note of god where he had manifested his gratitude to god by praising god for his beautiful creation of dappled cows. Further, as he continues, he eventually mentioned about different animals and things that are endowed with the unique dappled feature by god. Fish, which is a common sight for all of us, Hopkins visualized it from the perspective of a poet. His ingenuity to view the common phenomenon of life from a complete different point of view from general people made his poetic creation so popular among all.

The Windhover, on the other hand, composed on a single subject that is the beauty of Eagle. The poet here employed different figure of speeches, hyperbole is the most common aspect among many others, through which he depicted the bird more than its usual status. The Eagle was addressed as the prince of sky and likewise, Hopkins attached several others influential comparison with the flying ability of the bird. Nonetheless, the poet in the next stanza mentioned the fact that in comparison to god and his ability, the eagle’s skill is nothing.

Having praised and enjoyed the fluent aesthetic beauty of Hopkins’s poems, I should mention the fact that despite its blissful description and vivid picturesque of different facts his poems are not really beyond discussion. The most common element in his poems is the mention of glory of god; in certain conditions his exaggeration and unnecessary comparison between god and his creations thwarted the spontaneous flow of Hopkins literary work. Through his poems it is pretty much clear that he could never get out of the usual biasness of society that revolved around usual religious establishment. For an instance in his poem ‘The Windhover’ it appears quite irrational to compare the ability of Eagle to god. In his endeavor to emphasize the ability of god he often brought him down below the usual level by comparing the divine power to the mere capacity of a bird. However, notwithstanding all such limitations Hopkins poems certainly deserve acclamation for its poetic beauty and spontaneous literary description.