Selected Sonnets and Other Lyrics by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Wonderful as the starlit night is, Hopkins imagines it simply as the external ‘paling’ or fence of the true Heaven beyond the visible heavens. In another remarkable shift of perspective, the heavens (which, of course, enclose us) become a ‘barn’ which the reader can imaginatively ‘enclose,’ in that it is possible to view all sides of a barn and walk around it. Inside the barn are Jesus, Mary and the Saints (and, eventually, us, if we can make it to heaven). The image of a barn suggests the Nativity; it is also where the harvest is stored, suggesting the General Resurrection with its harvesting of mankind. Christ is our spouse, theologically, if we are part of the Church, the Bride of Christ.
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