The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins was born on July 28th, 1844. If you’ve ever seen a kingfisher fly past, you’ll know that flash of bright blue, so you’ll probably be able to imagine the excitement that Hopkins puts in the opening line to this wonderful poem:
“As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame”
But this poem turns out to be more than being inspired by nature. It turns out, firstly, to be about the uniqueness of each living thing:
“Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves — goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying Whát I dó is me: for that I came.”
But there is still more. Human beings, he says, do not merely go around “being themselves”. That could mean anything! He turns to consider goodness and virtue:
“I say móre: the just man justices;
Keeps grace: thát keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is —”
And the poem ends with this idea that each person is the divine image. Hopkins was a Christian, and for him, he sees Christ, God’s image, in each person:
“Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is —
Chríst — 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.”
You can read the whole poem here.
