Inscapes (Complete Set)

II N N S S C C A A P P E E S S

Poems

E R A R D M A N L E Y H O P K I N S

by

H A W N K I R C H N E

T h e W i n d h o v e r :

To Christ our Lord

I caught this morning morning’s minion, kingdom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dáwn-drawn Falcon, in his riding Of the rólling level úndernéath him steady áir, and stríding

High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing

In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,

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!

PERUSAL

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

No wónder of it: shéer plód makes plóugh down síllion Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear, Fall, gáll themsélves, and gásh góld-vermílion.

Notes on the poem

“The Windhover,” considered by Gerard Manley Hopkins himself to be his greatest poetic achievement, is an ecstatic meditation on the poet’s observation of a kestrel in flight called “windhover” because of its ability to fly at the same speed as the opposing wind and therefore to hover without moving.

In this poem, Hopkins’ vision as a nature mystic and his vision as a Christian mystic are equally operative. He sees in the bird’s struggle with the wind both the revelation of its own essential nature (“inscape”) and an emblem for Christ’s revelation, whose essence was most fully revealed in being utterly opposed by all forces, eternal and temporal.

After waxing über ecstatically about Christ’s illumined being “a billion times told lovelier” than the magnificent kestrel the poet steps back and notes that this is simply the way of all things in being opposed, each thing’s essential nature is laid bare.

No wónder of it: shéer plód makes plóugh down síllion Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear, Fall, gáll themsélves, and gásh góld-vermílion.

PERUSAL

The metal plough, rusty after a winter of idleness, begins to shine again after breaking new ground. The gray coals of a dying fire suddenly reveal their glowing orange centers when a piece of ash falls away.

Notes on the piece

There is vastness of scope in Hopkins’ poem, and the musical setting attempts to reflect the myriad landscapes that Hopkins traverses in one short poem. Singers may imagine themselves more an orchestra than a choir, as successive sections suggest shifting timbres.

One image may help the poem’s final, miraculous phrase come to livelier life in the singer’s mind: “and blue bleak embers…fall, gall themselves, and gash gold vermilion.” The music is reflective of large forces, though fire‐coals themselves are small and still. But anyone who has leaned close to a dying fire knows the absolute intensity of heat that the coals retain. So, I imagined a magnification where the falling coals are not small, but towering, like huge chunks of glacier falling mightily into the ocean. Such is the punch that Hopkins’ poem packs, and one attempts to do justice with music.

ecsta-sy!-then

ecsta-sy!-then

ecsta-sy!-then

ecsta-sy!-then

ecsta-sy!-

ecsta-sy!-

ecsta-sy!-

ecsta-sy!-

hurl

andgliding-re-

hurl

cresc. andgliding-re-

cresc. hurlandgliding,-

cresc. hurlandgliding,-

Brute

Brute

fire thatbreaksfromtheethen,

poco rit.

mf espress. fire thatbreaksfromthee

fire thatbreaksfromtheethen, then, fire

f thatbreaksfromtheethen, that

espress. breaksfromthee then, fire thatbreaksfromtheethen, fire thatbreaksfromtheethen,

mf fire thatbreaks,a

mp espress. fire thatbreaksfromtheethen,

mf fire thatbreaks,a

mp espress. then, fire

mp espress. then, fire thatbreaksfromtheethen, (n)

f thatbreaksfromtheethen, a

No

wonder-ofit; shéerplód makesplóughdown-síllion- shine, and

molto espress. bluebleak-

wonder-ofit; shéerplód makesplóughdown-síllion- shine, and

molto espress. bluebleak-

No

wonder-ofit; shéerplód makesplóughdown-síllion- shine,

No

wonder-ofit; shéerplód makesplóughdown-síllion- shine,

No

wonder-ofit; shéerplód makesplóughdown-síllion- shine,

wonder-ofit; shéerplód makesplóughdown-síllion- shine,blue,

wonder-ofit; shéerplód makesplóughdown-síllion- shine,

wonder-ofit; shéerplód makesplóughdown-síllion- shine,

Inversnaid

This dárksome búrn, hórseback brówn, His rollrock highroad roaring down, In coop and in comb the fleece of his foam Flutes and low to the lake falls home.

A wíndpuff-bónnet of fáwn-fróth

Turns and twindles over the broth Of a póol so pítchblack, féll-frówning, It rounds and rounds Despair to drowning.

PERUSAL

Degged with dew, dappled with dew Are the groins of the braes that the brook treads through, Wiry heathpacks, flitches of fern, And the beadbonny ash that sits over the burn.

What would the world be, once bereft

Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left, O let them be left, wildness and wet; Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.

Notes on the poem

Hopkins wrote “Inversnaid” (pronounced “inver snade”) after a visit to Loch Lomond. In his journal he commented that “the day was dark and partly hid the lake, but it did not altogether disfigure it but gave a pensive and solemn beauty which left a deep impression on me. I landed at Inversnaid for a few hours….” One may assume that he began composing his poem in Inversnaid, a village on the eastern shore of Loch Lomond, famous for its waterfalls that pour into the lake. (“Inversnaid” is a shortened form of the Scottish Gaelic “Inbhir Snáthaid” which means “the mouth of the needle stream.”)

This poem has gained Hopkins many fans from the ranks of environmentalists. The Industrial Revolution had already wrought considerable environmental degradation by Hopkins’ lifetime. In fact, his early death is considered to have been caused in part by the terrible air quality Dublin, his final post. (Hopkins was a Jesuit, and subject to the orders of his superiors in terms of employment.) Water pollution was also a huge problem, and many natural waterways had been altered for the purposes of powering mills, with whatever scarring of the landscape and felling of trees such projects would have necessitated. One hears the cry from the heart of a sincere lover of nature in the poem’s final lines:

PERUSAL

O let them be left, wildness and wet; Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.

Notes on the piece

Learning of Hopkins’ solemn mood after visiting Loch Lomond, I was surprised at the poem’s complete lack of stillness and quietude. Perhaps the lake itself inspired him in the first place, but his immediate stimulus once he got down to writing was the falls of Inversnaid. Whatever the case, the poem is sprightly, even elfin, and this mood is reflected in the woodwind esque opening theme. The phrases move continuously downward, suggestive of water in a many layered waterfall. Harmonically, flattened sevenths and sixths and later, flattened seconds and fifths contribute toward a whole tone sense of mystery and unresolved questions. Nature is wild, not tamed. In the second stanza, a new theme is introduced, suggestive of the foam that floats on the water, the basses echo the theme in lower octaves, adding a dark, even sinister, quality to the proceedings. After a third stanza of sheer wordplay, the final stanza marks a return to the opening theme. Hopkins’ heartfelt cry “long live the weeds and the wilderness” is raised repeatedly in a short coda.

Manley Hopkins Shawn Kirchner

flutes andlowtothelakefallshome.

pp dárksome-búrn, hórsefleeceoffoamflutes,fallshome.

fleeceofhisfoamflutes andlowtothelakefallshome. This

pp dárksomeflutes, fallshome. flutes andlowtothelakefallshome. oo

pp flutes andlowtothelakefallshome.

This

This

pp dárksome-búrn,hórseflutes,fallshome.

This

pp dárksome- búrn,

rall.

thatsitso'ertheburn.

thatsitso'ertheburn.

live theweeds,longlivethewil-

mf

yet.

livethewil der-

long livethewil der-

yet.

theweeds,longlivethewilder-

yet.

livetheweeds,longlivethewilder-ness,-longlivethewilder-ness- yet.

long livethewil der-

yet.

livethewil der-

yet.

B i n s e y P o p l a r s

felled 1879

My aspens dear, whose airy cages quelled, Quelled or quenched in leaves the leaping sun, Áll félled, félled, are áll félled;

Of a fresh and following folded rank Not spared, not one That dandled a sandalled Shadow that swam or sank

On meadow and river and wind-wandering weed-winding bank.

O if we but knew what we do When we delve or hew— Hack and rack the growing green!

[ Since country is so tender

To tóuch, her béing só slénder, That, like this sleek and seeing ball But a prick will make no eye at all, Where we, even where we mean To mend her we end her, When we hew or delve:]

After-comers cannot guess the beauty been.

Ten or twelve, only ten or twelve Strokes of havoc únselve The sweet especial scene, Rural scene, a rural scene, Sweet especial rural scene.

.

Notes on the poem

Some years after being a student at Oxford, Hopkins returned for a visit. Taking time to walk to a favorite spot along the River Cherwell, he found the entire stand of trees felled. “Binsey Poplars” is the poet’s elegy for this place, these trees. The tragedy of their loss is made more poignant by Hopkins’ observation of both the ease of the destruction “only ten or twelve strokes” of the axe and the ultimate nature of the destruction; the “sweet especial rural scene” is essentially unmade, unselved so utterly that “aftercomers cannot [even] guess the beauty [that had] been” here in this place.

Notes on the piece

A portion of the poem’s second part was omitted so that this movement could be structured as a strophic song with two identical verses. Care should be taken to ensure that the singers with the melody don’t overwhelm the singers with the accompanying hums. The three note accompanying motives can be understood in three ways as the sound of the wind through the trees, as the slight motion of the trees themselves in the wind, or as soft moans of lament.

PERUSAL

Kirchner

‘

A s k i n g f i s h e r s c a t c h f i r e

As kingfishers catch fire, as dragonflies draw flame; As tumbled over rim in roundy wells Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name; Each mortal thing does one thing and the same: Deals out that being indoors each one dwells; Selves—goes its self; myself it speaks and spells, Crying What I do is me: for that I came.

[I say more: the just man justices; Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces; Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is— Christ—for Christ plays in ten thousand places, Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his To the Father through the features of men’s faces.]

PERUSAL

Notes on the poem

This poem could be considered Hopkins’ manifesto. It is, in a sense, his own poetic definition of the concept of “inscape.” Inspired by the early Oxford theologian Duns Scotus, who spoke of the “haecceitas” the thisness of each creature, each thing Hopkins coined his own term: “inscape.” It is a complex term of multiple dimensions.

On one level, the inscape of any thing is its physical pattern of being. Hopkins came from a family of artists, and although he chiefly developed his skill with words, his early training in physical observation is always evidenced in his poetry. A number of his journal entries show him describing the inscape of various natural phenomena, like a group of clouds, or water flowing over rocks. One senses that his groping to describe these patterns with as much precision as possible further honed his already keen sense of words. Indeed, some portions of the journal entries are hardly distinguishable from his poetry.

Another level of the inscape of any thing is the revelation from within of its essential being. These lines from ‘As kingfishers catch fire’ express this aspect of inscape:

Each mortal thing does one thing and the same: Deals out that being indoors each one dwells; Selves—goes its self; myself it speaks and spells, Crying What I do is me: for that I came.

PERUSAL

For Hopkins, this revelation of being was actually more of a verb than a noun: the selving of a thing its movement in its own becoming.

Finally, there is the theological layer to the concept of inscape. Here Hopkins’ identity as a nature mystic comes into full play. The wonder he finds in the uniqueness of each creature points back to the hand of the Creator. To quote Eleanor Ruggles, one of Hopkins’ foremost biographers, each creature’s inscape pertains to the “selfhood that it has from and in God.” In Hopkins’ poetry, this perception is often accompanied with the image of fire, as in his well known poem, “God’s Grandeur”: “The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil….” Of course, images of fire leap off the page in the poem ‘As kingfishers catch fire’: kingfishers “catch fire,” dragonflies “draw flame.” With Hopkins, one senses an image for God that is much more elemental and cosmic than any anthropomorphic Biblical imagery an image of creative energy like the sun itself, burning with million degree heat, spitting atoms across space or the molten lava that leaps out of the darkness to make mountains. In each creature, the shining power of God can be perceived, because each creature is part of God’s own becoming. Each creature is an actual expression of God’s own being.

Notes on the piece

This piece was first imagined with strong quarter note drumbeats. Even if it is sung a cappella, singers are freely encouraged to “hear” and “feel” the energy of these strong pulses in their minds and bodies.

Diction becomes something newly discovered with Hopkins as if one has never really pronounced a consonant until one has recited a Hopkins poem. In ‘As kingfishers,’ the “f’s” leap out like flame. The “ng’s,” “m’s” and “n’s”ring like bells. The “k’s” are plucked like sharp pizzicatos. Words should be uttered in this piece as if they are being newly created when they fly from one’s mouth.

This was the first movement of Inscapes to be conceived. A raised fourth in the opening phrase gives an exciting instability to the harmonic language that sets the tone for the movement as a whole. There is an energy of unfolding, of becoming.

Manley

Shawn Kirchner

self;

self; myself-itspeaksandspells, myself-itspeaksandspells,

self; myself-itspeaksandspells, myself-itspeaksandspells,

myself

-itspeaksandspells,

asdragonflies-