RDB Emmerson's "The Windhover"

“To Christ our Lord

I CAUGHT this morning morning’s minion, king-
dom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing, 5
As a skate’s heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird,—the achieve of; the mastery of the thing!

Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion 10
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!

No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion."- Gerard Manley Hopkins


When I first read Hopkins’ poem “The Windhover”, I was positive that the poem was merely about a Falcon’s fall from the sky; however, once I noticed Hopkins’ opening lines “To Christ our Lord”, a whole new hidden meaning seeped onto the page from the intricately planned stanzas. The journey of the hawk seems to personify the life and death of Jesus Christ and provides a glimpse at mankind’s relationship with Him. By contrasting the bird’s absolute power and majesty at the beginning of the poem with the of elimination of dignity and pride towards the end, Hopkins creates a parallel to Christ's sacrifice of His divinity to win man's salvation.

The stanza,

“Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion 10
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!”

is truly the pivotal point in the poem.

Hopkins begins by establishing the grandeur of Christ, or in this case the Falcon, in the list of “ brute, beauty, valour”, and then portrays the sacrifice of these things by saying “and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here Buckle!” (Hopkins 9-10). “Buckle” contains a great connotation in that it represents the diminishing of Christ’s human spirit. The next line, “AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion 10
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!”, portrays Christ as conqueror or “ chevalier” over death and depicts the arising of the incredible promise of eternal life through Him for the believer in “the fire that breaks from thee” (Hopkins 10-11).

The last stanza
No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear, 13
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.

discusses the promise of the cross and the struggles that are overcome through it. While some may find “no wonder” in the cross, its true message of the omnipotent and loving God “makes down sillion (the immense suffering of Christ) shine”. Even though “The blue-bleak embers (or the nonbelievers betray Christ and) fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion (the Blood of Christ), the glory of God shines through in Jesus’ Resurrection (Hopkins 12-14). Though this poem can be interpreted in many different ways, I find this interpretation to make perfect sense with Hopkins’ choice of prose and diction. Through his personification of the Hawk, I was able to discover new meaning in the persecution, Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ.

RDB Gender and Diversity

"When the earliest settlers poured into a wild continent (which was to become America), there was no one to ask them where they came from…the land flourished because it was fed from so many sources—because it was nourished by so many cultures and traditions and people.” (859C). While America is even more so a melting pot of an infinite variety of backgrounds, races, and cultures today, the acceptance of all hardworking and dedicated people has plummeted to an all time low in which people have lost all connection with their individual identities.
Though our generation is the most open-minded and diverse America has seen thus far, we represent a new breed of Americans who find a constant need to prove ourselves to others by altering our identities to fit society’s definition of what is acceptable. Even though we are stuck in the battle of conformity, we still long to be individualistic, and we struggle to find our niche while are constantly striving to make ourselves unique. Many of the author’s of the essays discussing gender and diversity, mentioned this struggle and related it to a journey of self discovery that is “characterized by a patchwork quilt of custom and assimilation, of resistance and complicity, and of understanding and confusion” (Anadrade 214). It is hard for us to imagine another’s hopes, dreams, and feelings because we are so wrapped up in our own lives, and we often times cast the thought of them aside completely. ((It is hard to practice our sympathetic imagination and put ourselves in another's position.)

The views of society have engrained in our minds that we must look and act a certain way in order to be successful, and we often apply these views in our everyday life without a second thought. Norma Anadrade said that “I had been trained to look at people’s color my entire life”, and I think that this is probably the truth for most of us (224). Stereotypes of certain groups of people have become so prevalent that people have forgotten how to acknowledge other’s identities as well as their own. One group of people that I have noticed that I discriminate against in my life is the homeless. While I have often thought of them as just lazy bums who do not want to work for a living and just pester me for money as I walk up and down the drag, I have started to realize that each of them is a person with a story. Recently, I have made an effort to smile and make eye contact with them as I pass by or speak to them when they speak to me. Last week, I even talked to a homeless man named Ben for a while after I gave him my leftovers, and he surprised me with his ramblings of the things he had experienced in his life. I have realized that the homeless, much like myself, simply yearn to be acknowledged and have their identity recognized by another. I believe that it is important for us to remember that although everyone’s lives have encompassed different circumstances and situations, we are all still related through the fact that we are human and for the most part have the same desires and endure similar human sufferings. Vincent Ng said in his essay , “While I see my roots as an important connection to my past, I do not see them defining my future.” (257). Our identities are innate within all of us, but, they do not define us, we define them. It is up to us to discover who we are, and to listen to the stories of others so that they might be able to do the same. There are so many people in the world yearning to be someone, longing to possess some sort of identity, and it is up to us to help them discover the endless possibilities that lay within themselves.