E349S May 3: Eternal and Timeless

Solitude

Lewis Carroll's poem "Solitude" highlights the beauty of nature as he "love[s] the stillness of the wood/ [he] love[s] the music of the rill" for it is in nature, in solitude, here "from the world [he] win[s] release"[1]. Carroll was fascinated with youth and childhood naivety, and thus, this sense of isolation amongst nature's embrace frees him from his adulthood, as he looks towards the "golden hours of Life's young spring"[2]. Carroll's poetry helps the reader dive into the psyche of Carroll's closed mind. Through his childhood embrace and nostalgic tone, the reader finds Carroll as a simple man who attempts to find peace in an ever-changing world and appreciation for what he has.   His poem implies Carroll's inner child and his desire to return to memories of the past, to separate himself from the world he reside in, to explore his own childish instinct lost over the years. 

The Good 'ole Days

On the other hand, Hopkins focuses on the comparison of a flame to man. His poem reads "Man, how fast his firedint/ his mark on mind, is gone," for both are "in an unfathomable, all is in an enormous dark/ drowned"[3]. The imagery is almost paradoxical considering Hopkins links fire to darkness. Fire is magnificent, associated with intensity and tremendous light, whilst his imagery depicts drowning and darkness. 

Real Flame

Hopkins flame

Professor Bump's Gerard Manley Hopkins argues that "the cutting away [of the diamond], the ascetic commitment to the imitatio of Christ" made "Hopkins compress so much meaning into the seemingly endless echoes and extraordinary allusive metaphors of his poem, with the result that they do indeed seem to shine like multifaceted diamonds"[4]. Prior to the depiction of the magnificent diamond, Hopkins describes "a beacon, an eternal beam/ flesh fade and mortal trash"[5]. Thus, the diamond and fire are very similar, illustrious in quality, immortal and eternal, neither destroyed by the test of time and man. The poem praises the multi-faceted mysteries of God, and his universality in the world, for God is timeless, eternal and immortal like the fire and diamond. While Carroll implies that fond memories are timeless while Hopkins is triumphantly resurrected, illuminated. 

Diamonds are Forever.

Works Cited

1. Jerome Bump, "Gerard Manley Hopkins," Carroll and Hopkins, (Austin: 2012), 478.

2.Jerome Bump, "Gerard Manley Hopkins," Carroll and Hopkins, (Austin: 2012), 479.

3.Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Major Works Including all the Poems and Selected Prose (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 181.

4. Jerome Bump, "Gerard Manley Hopkins," Carroll and Hopkins, (Austin: 2012), 441.

5. Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Major Works Including all the Poems and Selected Prose (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 181.