Sárospataki Füzetek 18. (2014)
2014 / 1. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - Frank Sawyer: Gerard Manley Hopkins: "Christ plays in ten thousand places"
Gerard Manley Hopkins And though the last lights off the black West went Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastwards, springs - Because the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods15 with warm breast and with ah! bright wings. The wonderful thing about Hopkins’ view here is that the most mundane of things, even though seared and soiled by human use and abuse, yet shines forth the glory of God in some way or another. The compact and at times surprising use of language Hopkins paints with, is itself an attraction in such praise poems; yet the message adds to this by giving these sights and sounds a divine glory. Beside the mention of the Holy Spirit, there are many indirect biblical concepts discernible in this poem.16 The first line of the poem holds great potential which does not disappoint when Hopkins turns to the smallest of things and observes - like the rainbow of oozing oil - some kind of Godly glory. The word charged’ in the key phrase - “charged with the grandeur of God” - can refer to an electrical effect, but also can mean in further understanding that we have been given the responsibility (a charge) to recognize and respect this grandeur of creation. It is almost strange to hear the poet, earnest and downcast as he often was, and sternly disciplined but work weary, speak of “the dearest freshness deep down things”. He recognizes that the weary life (‘trodding on) falls short of the beauty around us and the glory of life. There is a freshness in the renewal of creation, whether we think of the morning sunrise, flowers, rain, or the new birth of animals and humans. This has a theological basis for Hopkins: the last two lines are superb in their reference to Genesis 1, especially because they actualize this viewpoint in a way hard to resist. Open as he was to the many dimensions of divine revelation, Hopkins includes both the “warm breast” of Godly care as well as the starker aspect of power and glory, so briefly but firmly alluded to in the exceptionally poignant phrase “and with ah! bright wings”. We see a similar achievement in the following sonnet also. The Windhover to Christ our Lord I caught this morning morning's minion, kingdom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-ddwn-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 ecstacy! then off, off forth on swing, 15 This gives the image of a bird warming, hatching, and raising young. 16 Cf. Skylar H. Burris, Biblical Imagery in Gerard Manley Hopkins"'God's Grandeur" (The Victorian Web, 2003). Sárospataki Füzetek 17. évfolyam 201411 87
