Analysis Of As Kingfisher Catch Fire By Gerard Manley Hopkins

AS KINGFISHER CATCH FIRE is a great poem that is full of sounds, each line is with either alliteration, assonance or both. Not like the Shakespeare's, Hopkins' sonnet didn't follow a rigid end rhyme pattern and spoke of religion and its influence on human.

Gerard Manley Hopkins canned the poem with a flexible lid but the complex content was only to be enjoyed by those who can patiently digest it. The poem began with similes, describing how a situation leads to another (As kingfisher catch fire, dragonflies draw flame) making readers see how injustice led to Christianity. He said further that the sound of rung bells made a bold tongue gather people for spiritual orientation which has become a routine "Each mortal thing does one thing and the same" (in line 5)

According to line 13 and 14 of the poem "Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his/ To the Father through the features of men's faces"
Those parading theselves as teachers of Christ ways; portraying Christ in thousand places are only what they are in the faces of men but migh
t not be through the Father (God)

The following are the themes evident within the poem: (i) theme of Christianity (ii) theme of priesthood (iii) theme of cause and effect (iv) theme of moral and injustices (v) theme of human opinion and thoughts

The examples below carry Similes, Alliterations and Imageries as few among many poetic devices in the poem:
"As kingfisher catch fire, dragonflies draw flame
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells" (line 1-2)
"Stones ring; like each tucked string tells each hung bells"

Gerard Manley Hopkins was born in Stratford, England in the year 1844 but died 45years later in 1889. Few among his beautiful poem are: Felix Randal, Pied Beauty, The Caged Skylark, etc.

Samuel C. Enunwa aka samueldpoetry
(the Leo with wings flying)