The Windhover

In the 4th century, the Roman Emperor Constantine supposedly experienced a religious epiphany during battle. He witnessed a vision of a cross in the sky, and soon after he ushered in the beginning of Europe’s full conversion to Christianity from Paganism. For centuries, the Christian epiphany has existed as a powerful rhetorical tool designed to illustrate the indescribable power Christians believe God has over the mind, heart, and soul. Essentially, a religious epiphany is an act of God, and it brings about great intellectual change and growth.

While Hopkins’s poem doesn’t describe a conversion epiphany, it presents the story of an epiphany that deepens one's commitment to their Christian belief. The epiphany in the poem is the connection the speaker makes between what he sees in the bird and how the vision of the bird relates to thoughts of the soul and its place in the world. Hopkins uses the image of fire—a common image in Christianity—to express the feeling of enlightenment that comes with this introspection. He realizes that the bird’s qualities—control, beauty, grace, perfection in form, renewal—exist in other things, including the soul.

It is ironic that Hopkins felt for a long time that poetry and religious devotion were at odds.