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  • Essay / The Poetry of GM Hopkins: The Symbolism of Nature

    In the Victorian era, most poets focused not on nature and the divine world, but rather on the cultural and societal issues that occurred in England at that time. But Gerard Manley Hopkins chose not to follow the path of his fellow poets and took a more Romantic-inspired path in writing his poetic masterpieces. Gerard Manley Hopkins chose to write about nature and Christianity, as did Romantic poets Lord Byron, Percy Shelley and John Keats. Most of his poems were written while he was a Christian priest, therefore his poems had several traces of Christian theology and communicated the beauty of nature. He also created the idea of ​​poetic originality, which involves a poem using word play, unusual rhymes, omission of certain words, use of interjections, and unusual compound words. All of Hopkins' work exhibits most of these traits that make his poetry easy to identify. Two of his poems "Spring" and "Pied Beauty" have strong themes of nature, God and poetic originality, all of which were favorite themes of Hopkins. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay “Spring,” written in 1880, focused primarily on how it is ultimately up to God to protect the beauty and innocence of the sin nature. Many lines in this poem have strong connections to nature. The poem opens with “Nothing is as beautiful as spring” (line 1), Hopkins says that spring is beautiful and nothing can compare to its beauty. Spring is often associated with the sense of renewal and rebirth which correlates with God and his creations. The poem goes on to say, “When the weeds, in wheels, grow long and fair and luxuriant” (line 2); this line can result in weeds and regrowth beginning to germinate in early spring. One of the main features of Hopkins' poetic originality is the use of puns. In line 2, the word “pull” can be interpreted in two senses. “Shoot” with the image of the wheels, gives an impression of movement and moving forward, a bit like the spring season at the end of a long winter. The word "sprout" can also refer to weed shoots and new shoots that arise from the ground. There are great elements of nature in every line of “Spring,” as in the description “with richness; racing lambs have their own adventure too” (line 8). This line is a combination of the theme of nature and the theme of innocence. This line has a connotation of innocence due to the inclusion of lambs, often associated with Christianity and innocence. There is also an internal rhyme, which is another trait of Hopkins' poetic originality. The internal rhyme is between "fair" and "their" and an alliteration of "wealth" and "race" with "fair" and "adventure". Line 3 is also very important in the theme of nature in this poem, “the eggs of the lily of the valley are like little low skies, and the lily of the valley”. In this line, the speaker compares the eggs of the lily of the valley (which is a bird) to the heavens. This line represents the feeling of “heaven on earth” that spring brings with its arrival. By introducing the heavens, he gives a religious tone to the poem. Some critics also believe that Hopkins intentionally omitted the word "like" to draw attention to the close connection between the eggs and the sky. This poem was heavily based on Hopkins' occupation and love of nature as a priest. It also shows heavy traces of.