Gerard Manley Hopkins: Poems Literary Elements

Gerard Manley Hopkins: Poems Literary Elements

Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View

The poem entitled "Heaven-Haven’’ is told from the perspective of a first person subjective narrator and point of view.

Form and Meter

The poem "Carrion Comfort’’ is written in an iambic pentameter.

Metaphors and Similes

In the poem entitled "Hurrahing in Harvest’’, the act of finding God is compared with the harvest which takes place in autumn. This comparison also appears in Bible, to suggest the large number of people who will accept God’s truth and will become Christians in modern times. The image of the harvest is also used in this poem to compare the way in which religion can bring happiness and fulfillment to everyone, no matter their financial status, sex or age.

Alliteration and Assonance

"We find alliteration in the line "Not untwist — slack they may be’’ in the poem entitled ‘’Carrion Comfort’’.

Irony

No ironical element can be found in the poems.

Genre

The poem "Heaven-Haven’’ is a meditative poem through which the narrator expresses his own feelings and ideas.

Setting

The action in the poem ‘’In the Valley of the Elwy’’ takes place in a house where the narrator lives. The time when the action takes place remains a mystery.

Tone

The tone in the poem ‘’My Own Heart Let Me More Have Pity On’’ is a sad, lamenting one which has the purpose to transmit the narrator’s feelings of despair.

Protagonist and Antagonist

The protagonist in the poem ‘’The Windhover’’ is the falcon and the antagonists are the small rodents captured and killed by the falcon.

Major Conflict

The major conflict in the poem entitled ‘’My Own Heart Let Me More Have Pity On’’ is between the narrator or rather his desire to be a cold and calculated man and his own feelings which he has no control over.

Climax

The poem ‘’God’s Grandeur’’ reaches its climax towards the end when the narrator ends the poem by mentioning how even though there is proof that God exists, some people still decide to ignore it.

Foreshadowing

The title of the poem ‘’I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark, not Day’’, foreshadows the depressive state in which the narrator felt into and which is described in the poem.

Understatement

The title of the poem ‘’No Worst, There is None’’, transmits the idea that there is no hope. In the beginning of the poem, the narrator continues to explore this line of thought and the possibility that there is nothing which can make life worth living for. All these elements are however an understatement as the narrator admits towards the end of the poem that he can see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Allusions

In the poem entitled ‘’The Windhover’’, the narrator presents a falcon, rising into the air and then catching it pray with ease. The falcon is used in this poem as a symbol for Jesus and thus it is alluded in this poem that Jesus and God have the power to eliminate those who can be considered as being enemies of the faith.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

The pronoun ‘’they’’ is used in the poem ‘’God’s Grandeur’’ as a general term to make reference to the people who refuse to accept God into their lives and to accept his power.

Personification

We find a personification in the line ‘’ Soul, self; come, poor Jackself, I do advise you,’’ in the poem ‘’My Own Heart Let Me More Have Pity On’’.

Hyperbole

We find a hyperbole in the poem ‘’At the Wedding March’’ in the lines ‘’ Who to wedlock, his wonder wedlock, /Déals tríumph and immortal years.’’

Onomatopoeia

We find an onomatopoeia in the line "it speaks and spells, crying’’ in the poem ‘’As Kingfishers Catch Fire’’.

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