37 pages • 1 hour read
The Windhover
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Summary and Study Guide
Overview
“The Windhover” (1877;1918) is a sonnet by English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889). Hopkins, a Victorian poet and Jesuit priest, wrote the poem as an expression of Christian devotion and in praise of Jesus Christ. The poem uses the image of a common kestrel, a type of falcon, as a launching point for the moment of religious epiphany the speaker feels, which leads to the belief that there is light within all people that religious experience illuminates and sets free.
While the poem can be difficult to classify, it can be viewed as a precursor to modernism and as a bridge between the Modernists and the Victorian poets. The poem also contains some aspects of Romanticism in its appreciation of the natural world. The poem’s unusual syntax and use of juxtaposition place it closer to Modernism while its form and content are closer to Victorian poetry.
Most critics consider “The Windhover” to be Hopkins's best poem, and it is his most well-known work.
Poet Biography
Gerard Manley Hopkins was born on July 28, 1844, in Stratford, Essex, England. Hopkins’s father worked for the English government and wrote poetry.
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