Selected Sonnets and Other Lyrics by Gerard Manley Hopkins

THOUGHTS
One of the most interesting things about this poem is the way in which, it forcefully commands ‘Look up!’ several times, but imaginatively the reader seems to be ‘looking down’ on the earth from God’s perspective. It is as if we are in the sky, straining our vision to see within the ‘dim woods’ the ‘bright boroughs’ with their lights, and even the reflected sheen of hidden diamond mines. In fact, of course, the reader is supposed to be examining the sky, and the ‘dim woods’ are really empty space, and the other objects Hopkins describes are simply bright points of light. Possibly this reversal of perspective allows Hopkins more scope to create a cornucopia of wonder and variation. This is why he uses the alphabet (alliterating on b’s then c’s, then d’s then e’s) to suggest a seemingly endless variety in the sky world (perhaps mirroring the endless variety of the created world beneath). The glimmering, twinkling aspect of stars is implied by the two comparisons to trees which have leaves with silvery undersides. More mysterious is the line ‘Grey lawns cold, where gold, where quickgold lies.’ Seen ‘from above’ this could describe a moonlit lawn dotted with golden flowers such as dandelions or buttercups. Seen ‘from below,’ some commentators see this as a brighter patch of sky, perhaps just before the dawn. Or it may refer to the Milky Way – a band of silvery grey light (actually the spiral arm of our galaxy), in which brighter stars shine out (which are actually much nearer than the Milky Way itself). Why ‘quickgold’? A possible suggestion: mercury, if poured out on a flat surface, ‘balls’ itself into tiny spheres because of its high surface tension; this would make Hopkins’ bright stars like tiny golden balls. ‘Flake-doves sent floating forth at a farmyard scare’ is another puzzling line. Hopkins described starlings in his Journal as ‘black flakes hurling around’, and he seems to have transferred this idea to white doves sent flying from a farmyard by some disturbance. Perhaps the doves are imagined like ‘flakes’ (snowflakes) viewed at a distance from the ground, as they are fully aloft and seem to be ‘floating’ in the air. The movement again suggests the twinkling of stars.

The volta begins with line eight. The beautiful starlit night is something we can possess, through ‘purchase’ or as a ‘prize.’ We make the purchase by traditional religious practices; we gain the prize by, as St Paul said, running the race to the finish (1Cor 9:24).