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The windhover gerard manley hopkins audiobook short poetry
"The Windhover" is a sonnet by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889). It was written on May 30, 1877, but not published until 1918, when it was included as part of the collection Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Hopkins dedicated the poem "to Christ our Lord".
Contents
- The windhover gerard manley hopkins audiobook short poetry
- Gerard manley hopkins the windhover
- In popular culture
- References
"Windhover" is another name for the common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus). The name refers to the bird's ability to hover in midair while hunting prey. In the poem, the narrator admires the bird as it hovers in the air, suggesting that it controls the wind as a man may control a horse. The bird then suddenly swoops downwards and "rebuffed the big wind". The bird can be viewed as a metaphor for Christ or of divine epiphany.
Hopkins called "The Windhover" "the best thing [he] ever wrote". It commonly appears in anthologies and has lent itself to many interpretations.
Gerard manley hopkins the windhover
In popular culture
The poem appears in the TV series Due South. It is shared by the characters Constable Benton Fraser and fugitive Victoria Metcalf while they sustain one another on a mountainside during a bitter storm, forming a deep and passionate bond in the process. The episode "Victoria's Secret" concludes with Fraser lying shot on a railway platform reciting The Windhover.
The poem appears in the "Diggs" episode of The Simpsons (Season 25 Episode 12) as the guest character Diggs (voiced by Daniel Radcliffe) is a falconer and shows Bart how cool falconing is.
The poem also appears in The Waltons (season 2, episode 13: "The Air Mail Man"). John-Boy reads part of The Windhover to his Mother, Olivia, as a birthday present. Olivia said she did not understand it but was moved by the phrase "my heart in hiding stirred".