The Windhover

"The Windhover" is a sonnet by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889). It was written on 30 May 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".

The Windhover

I caught this morning morning's minion, king-
    dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-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 ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
    As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
    Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird, – the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!

Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
    Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!
     
   No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
    Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermilion.

"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.

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".

The poem also appears in Redfern Now (season 1, episode 4: "Stand Up"). Sixteen-year-old Joel Shields (Aaron McGrath) has just won an Indigenous scholarship to Clifton Grammar School - one of Sydney's most elite private schools. He is the only pupil to grasp the meaning of the alliteration at his first class of literature, while his fellows are laughing. The teacher will support him later as he refuses to sing and stand up at the Australian anthem they have to sing every morning.

The poem is recited from memory by writer Stephen Merchant during 9 February 2002 episode of The Ricky Gervias Show.

External links

• "The Windhover" study guide