The Calm Before the Storm, The Low Lull-Off Before the All Roar
Gerard Manley Hopkins's poem The Sea and the Skylark praises the the sea and the Skylark for their preservation of the essence of nature and all its beauty. Both withstand the test of time, proving to be testaments to natural order. The sea and Skylark serve to safeguard the true depiction of unadulterated nature. Thus, the "lark ascend[s]," its "rash-fresh re-winded new skeined score" can be heard in all its beauty.[1] The lark's song gives the impression of "something falling to the earth and not vertically quite but trickling or wavingly."[2] The lark's song is mysterious and unique, untouched by the hands of man, pure in its existence. It is the perfect image of nature's immaculacy. Similarly, Hopkins describes the sea as "the tide that ramps against the shore," continuous and never-ending, with its "low lull-off or all roar." [3] The sea and skylark are compared and contrasted to the condition of humanity. The sea and skylark transcend the consequences of time, whilst humanity, "life's pride and cared-for crown," has "lost that cheer and charm of earth's past prime." [4] Nature will always blossom, nature will remain constant. Humanity will repeatedly adapt.
The Eternal Roar of the Sea
Hopkins's The Caged Skylark also notes humanity's distortion over time results from the loss of nature's aura because "man's spirit will be flesh-bound, when found at best." [5] The poem depicts an imprisoned skylark "scanted in a dull cage."[6] The bird is caged and imprisoned by artificial means just as mankind is confined by its own humanity. The human is temporary; untarnished nature is eternal. It is human nature to adapt and evolve, thus providing the ever-changing dynamic of mankind. This need for constant change destroys humanity's unity with nature. Because of continuous development, man loses the connection to the primordial force of nature.
Love at First Sight
Just as Hopkins argues mankind has lost its earthly touch, Lewis Carroll also comments on the decay of man through a different means: vanity and superficial tendency. In Carroll's omitted chapter, "The Wasp in a Wig," Alice comes upon "something like a very old man" with a wasp's head. [7] This wasp fell victim to his own vanity, dictated by the judgment of others. In his youth, his peers demanded he "be shaved, and wear a yellow wig," and he failed to stand true to himself.[8]
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who is the Prettiest of Them All?
Even in his old age, his superficial tendencies never faltered, and he comments on Alice's physical features. He observes that," jaws ain't well shaped," but the "top of [her] head is nice and round." [9] The wasp's life was muddled with conceitedness and egotism, leaving him with nothing more than a sad reflection of who he was.
Works Cited
1. Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Major Works Including all the Poems and Selected Prose (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 131.
2. Hopkins, The Major Works, 351.
3. Hopkins, The Major Works, 131.
4. Hopkins, The Major Works, 131.
5. Hopkins, The Major Works, 133.
6. Hopkins, The Major Works, 133.
7. Lewis Carroll, The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, 2000), 293.
8. Carroll, The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition, 296.
9. Carroll, The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition, 297.
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