Hopkins: "As Kingfishers Catch Fire"

One of his most important and beloved poems, "As Kingfishers Catch Fire" is a glimpse into Gerard Manley Hopkins' philosophy of life, his way of seeing the world. Central to his approach to poetry, spirituality, and life were concepts he often refers to in his writing—inscape, a thing's "thingness" or an interior landscape, and instress, needle-sharp and deep attention to detail given to understand the essence of a thing.

With these concepts in mind, we can better make sense of "As Kingfishers Catch Fire." That as things do what they were made to do, we can see the traces of God in his creation if we are willing to look closely enough to find them. Instressing everything in life to discover the inscape, the goodness and richness God imprinted on all of creation.

Music from this episode was from EVOE, We Dream of Eden, Ian Post, Marshall Using, and Nobou. Sound design and editing is by Nate Sheppard.

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Episode Transcript

S1 (00:01):
I'm Andy Patton and this is Rhyme and Reason from
the Rabbit Room. Each season we look at the life
and work of one poet, starting with Gerard Manley Hopkins.

(00:27):
We're going to think about a poem today that might
seem strange at first, but it's one of Hopkins most
important and most beloved. If you can start to get
this poem, what he's doing in the rest of his
poetry can become a little clearer. This is as Kingfishers
Catch Fire by Gerard Manley Hopkins. As kingfishers catch fire,

(01:01):
dragonflies draw flame as tumbled over rim in Roundy wells.
Stone's ring, like each tucked string, tells each hung bell's bow.
Swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name. Each

(01:22):
mortal thing does one thing, and same deals out that
being indoors each one dwells selves goes itself myself. It
speaks in 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

(01:47):
God's eye. What in God's eye he is Christ, for
Christ plays in 10,000 places, lovely in limbs and lovely
in eyes, not his. To the father through the features
of men's faces. In this poem, Hopkins is doing a

(02:20):
very interesting thing with the sound of the words. He
was a musical poet, and he wanted his poems to
be read aloud the way it sounded mattered. And in
this poem he's matching the sound of the words to
the thing the words are describing. I owe this insight
to Abram Van Engen in his book Word Made Fresh.

(02:43):
Van Engen points out that when Hopkins wants to talk
about the bell ringing, he stretches out his vowels. You
can almost hear the words gonging like a big bell,
hung bow, swung tongue. And when he wants to evoke
an image of a taut string being plucked. The consonants
turn sharp like each tucked string tells. So there's a

(03:12):
lot going on in the poem, at the level of
the words and the rhymes and the sound of things.
But what's going on in the structure? This is going
to get a little technical, but this is what it
takes to see what Hopkins is up to in this poem.
Like many of Hopkins other poems, this is a sonnet
with an eight line part followed by a six line part.

(03:34):
The first four lines of the first stanza from As
Kingfishers Catch fire to fling out broad its name, give
us six images in quick succession a kingfisher, a dragonfly,
a well, a stone, a string, a bell. And these
images all connect in that they are things being things.

(03:56):
The color of the kingfishers red breast Redbreast in the sun.
The sound a stone makes as it falls. The clang
of a bell's bow, and the next four lines pivot
to comment on the first four lines to show that
these images were introduced as cases in point. Examples of

(04:16):
what he's about to say. And it's simply this what
things do is what they are. And in doing what
they do, they deal out or express what they are.
He even anthropomorphizes them and quotes him as crying. What
I do is me. For this I came. My meaning
is in my action and I express my essence just

(04:39):
by doing what I do. What I do is me.
To understand what Hopkins is getting at in this poem,
and how it relates to his personality and his way
in the world, We have to talk about two ideas

(05:00):
that were central to his approach to poetry and spirituality
and life. And those ideas are inscape and instress. These
two concepts are slightly enigmatic, but Hopkins referred to them
over and over in his writing, and you can't understand
what he's doing in this poem without understanding them. The

(05:23):
poem is almost like a poetic commentary on this part
of his philosophy of life. So let's start with Inscape
to take a line from the poem. Inscape is basically
that being indoors, each one dwells. You might think of
it as a thing's thingness. Think of it as an

(05:43):
interior landscape. And because God made the world, it turns
out that everything is bigger on the inside. The inscape
Hopkins saw was more vast and beautiful than it seemed
on the outside, even with things we would call common
birds wings, a furrowed field, a bluebell, a ferrier, a

(06:04):
falcon riding the dawn, thermals, all of these things, and
especially the people selves themselves, just by being what they are,
by doing what they do. But how do you access
the inscape of things? Well, by in stressing them. As
a child, young Hopkins made his little brothers eat flowers

(06:27):
so that they could really understand the flowers. And that
little vignette is kind of a strange story, but it's
a picture of an intuitive approach to what he would
one day call instress. This childish understanding grew into a
deep sense of meaning behind interacting with the world. And
that isn't to say that Hopkins went around eating things

(06:49):
to understand their essence all the time, but you can
see this strain of thought in his needle, sharp and
deep attention to things. The inscape, the goodness and richness
God imprinted on his creation could be accessed through that attention.
Here's an entry from his journal that really captures this idea.

(07:11):
Hopkins wrote once that all things are charged with love
and charged with God, and if we know how to
touch them, give off sparks and take fire. Yield drops
and flow ring and tell of him. And there's that
key phrase if we know how to touch them. It's

(07:31):
not automatic, even for people who believe the Christian God
is the creator and the creator of the world, that
we should see traces of Him in His creation. Rather,
it takes work. It's something that has to be in stress.
Hopkins touches on this idea in another poem, The Wreck
of the Deutschland, where he wrote Kiss My Hand to

(07:53):
the dappled with damson West. Since though he is under
the world. Splendor and wonder. His mystery must be in stressed, stressed.
For I greet him the days I meet him and bless.
When I understand he's saying that the glory is all
there to be seen. After all, each thing proclaims itself

(08:15):
and God, but his mystery has to be got at.
It has to be in stressed. It's something that either
strikes us forcefully in moments of great beauty or great pain,
or has to become a hard won habit of observation
and contemplation as we strive to greet him the days
we meet him. And that is what Hopkins poetry is

(08:41):
all about. His poems, if we instress them too, are
doorways to the inscape he saw and doorways to the
God he saw there. And maybe that's one reason why

(09:04):
it didn't bother him very much. If people said they
were complicated or hard to understand, the jewels weren't meant
to lay on the surface for the taking. They were
supposed to be buried to bring the reader to a
stillness that demands attention and patience. And perhaps he wanted
us to go on a journey into and through the poem,
and only then would we begin to see how big

(09:26):
they were on the inside. Look at that last stanza
that Hopkins introduces by saying, I say more. He seems
to pivot to the ultimate thing he finds inside everything God.
Theologians have spilled oceans of ink, parsing out exactly what
it means that humanity is made in the image of God.

(09:47):
But for my money, Hopkins accomplishes more in the last
six lines of this poem than any of them. He
says that God has left his imprint on humanity, his image.
And so his people are also images of him icons,
vectors of his presence and way in the world. So

(10:08):
that being indoors, each one dwells is ultimately Christ to Hopkins.
Our graces, our just acts, all our goings, those ways
we solve ourselves can become ways. Christ plays lovely in limbs,
lovely in eyes, not his to the father through the
features of men's faces. And now, with all that in mind,

(10:37):
here is As Kingfishers catch fire, read by Heidi Johnston.

S2 (10:46):
As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame as tumbled over
rim in Roundy wells. Stone's ring Like each tucked string, tails,
each hung bells bow swung finds tongue to fling out
broad its name. Each mortal thing does one thing and

(11:08):
the same deals out that being indoors each one dwells
selves goes itself 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

(11:34):
his goings, graces, act in God's eye. What in God's
eye he is Christ, for Christ plays in 10,000 places,
lovely in limbs and lovely in eyes. Not his to
the father through the features of man's faces.

S3 (12:00):
The music Christmas episode was from I Can Do It.
The music from this episode was from Outside In by
We Dream of Eden.

S1 (12:08):
Beyond the stories by Ian Post.

S4 (12:11):
Beyond the stories by Ian Post.

S1 (12:15):
Post.

S4 (12:17):
Voyager by Marshall. Music. Yes. Lifelines by Noble and Pugh.

S3 (12:23):
Land by Eville.

S4 (12:24):
The sound design and editing is by Nate Shepherd. You
can get more poetry from the Rabbit Room.

S5 (12:34):
By subscribing to our newsletter.

S4 (12:36):
By subscribing to our newsletter.