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liambornofshadows 's review for:
As kingfishers catch fire
by Gerard Manley Hopkins
I liked this book way more than the first one in this series, even though it's mostly religious poems. I think people ultimately write about what they believe in and so it's to be expected for poems in the 19th century to be about Jesus and God's power over nature and mankind. And I like to know what that belief is, I'd like to see it, even if I don't agree with it. So while in the first book I was really struggling to find out what point the author wanted to make, in this one, I knew and it made an impact. Sure, I rolled my eyes more than once, but that happens from time to time in classics.
I actually loved the word play in the poems. I loved the analogies and the metaphors between nature and matters of the self. Here's the interesting part about religious literature: take away God and Christianity from it, replace it with any matter of higher power or normal, literal power that you can see, or even don't replace it with anything, and yet you're still onto something. Some inner conflict or something like that. I think that's ironic and I like that about it. Faith is a concept with many games.
Anyway, I wanted to know why this book was chosen as a Penguin Little Black Classic and apparently it's due to Hopkins' significant influence on English literature by his innovative style. Hopkins is known as a precursor to modernist poetry for several reasons; he first employed a new meter, different from the traditional one, that he called "sprung rhythm", he used a lot of imagery and symbolism, mostly of nature, with the help of which, he then posed spiritual and philosophical questions. The diary part of the book was full of detailed descriptions of nature, for example. Modernist poetry frequently emphasizes personal perspective and subjective experience. Hopkins' focus on individual perception, particularly in relation to nature and spirituality, aligns with this modernist theme. His poems often reflect an intense personal engagement with the world around him. He also shines a light on the outcome of urbanisation on the natural course of things, which, if you are not that much of fan of humanity, you'll enjoy immensely. And lastly, his musicality in his poems is later influenced by poets like T.S. Elliot and Ezra Pound. So all in all, his style of poetry was also ahead of its time.
I don't know about you, but that's enough to impress me.
P.S. I almost forgot. "The Sea And The Skylark", "The Caged Skylark" and "Peace" were my favourite poems.
I actually loved the word play in the poems. I loved the analogies and the metaphors between nature and matters of the self. Here's the interesting part about religious literature: take away God and Christianity from it, replace it with any matter of higher power or normal, literal power that you can see, or even don't replace it with anything, and yet you're still onto something. Some inner conflict or something like that. I think that's ironic and I like that about it. Faith is a concept with many games.
Anyway, I wanted to know why this book was chosen as a Penguin Little Black Classic and apparently it's due to Hopkins' significant influence on English literature by his innovative style. Hopkins is known as a precursor to modernist poetry for several reasons; he first employed a new meter, different from the traditional one, that he called "sprung rhythm", he used a lot of imagery and symbolism, mostly of nature, with the help of which, he then posed spiritual and philosophical questions. The diary part of the book was full of detailed descriptions of nature, for example. Modernist poetry frequently emphasizes personal perspective and subjective experience. Hopkins' focus on individual perception, particularly in relation to nature and spirituality, aligns with this modernist theme. His poems often reflect an intense personal engagement with the world around him. He also shines a light on the outcome of urbanisation on the natural course of things, which, if you are not that much of fan of humanity, you'll enjoy immensely. And lastly, his musicality in his poems is later influenced by poets like T.S. Elliot and Ezra Pound. So all in all, his style of poetry was also ahead of its time.
I don't know about you, but that's enough to impress me.
P.S. I almost forgot. "The Sea And The Skylark", "The Caged Skylark" and "Peace" were my favourite poems.