Poem- The Sea and the Skylark (Gerard Manley Hopkins)

 

ON ear and ear two noises too old to end 

  Trench—right, the tide that ramps against the shore; 

  With a flood or a fall, low lull-off or all roar,

Frequenting there while moon shall wear and wend.   Left hand, off land, I hear the lark ascend,

           His rash-fresh re-winded new-skeinèd score

   In crisps of curl off wild winch whirl, and pour And pelt music,

 till none ’s to spill nor spend. 

  How these two shame this shallow and frail town!

  How ring right out our sordid turbid time,       

 Being pure! We, life’s pride and cared-for crown,     Have lost that cheer and charm of earth’s past prime: 

Our make and making break, are breaking, down   To man’s last dust, drain fast towards man’s first slime.  

Introduction to the poet- Gerard Manley Hopkins was born in a middle class family in 1844. He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford. He was the pupil of Jowett and Pater. 

The eldest child of a middle class family. In 1884 Hopkins was appointed to chair of Greek at Dublin University. He was a poet of much originality and a skillful innovator in rhythm. He wrote a number of source poems which were collected after his death by Robert Dridges who published a small collection from them in Mille's 'Poets and Poetry of the century.'  A practically complete addition of his poems was published in 1918. Hopkins, today, is regarded as one of the major poet in the realm of English poetry. 

Although his influence is more technical then spiritual, yet his acute sensibility to beauty, his original metaphors and his sincerity cannot be denied. 

Introduction to the poem-  'The Sea and the Skylark' is one of his lesser known poem. 'Felix Randel' and 'The Windhover' are extremely well-known. 'The Sea and The Skylark' however does reflect several of the qualities of Hopkin's poetry. This poem was written in 1877 in a seaside town of few miles from St. Beuno's College. In this poem 'sea' and the 'skylark' are contrasted with man whose deterioration seems to the poet evident in a tasteless seaside town. It's in a standard rhythm, in parts sprung and in others counterpointed. This poem is a sonnet and the polarity of the title is between water and air, the sea and the skylark, representative of nature.

It was originally titled, 'Waking by the Sea.' In this sonnet the sea and skylark are described in the octave (the first eight lines of sonnet). These are contrasted with main in the sestet. 

The first eight lines (octave)- While walking near the sea, the poet hears to sounds make a deep impression on him. Largely to stress the contraction the 'frail' crumbling town, he calls them 'too old to end.' On his right in the sea, which at high tide bounds wildly against the shore. At high tide the sea continually roars, while at ebb, when it is over a quarter of a mile away, there is a low, lulling sound in the distance. As long as the moon phase changes and it orbits the earth, the sea will be found repeatedly visiting the shore. The moon's orbit of the earth is the main cause of the tides.

On the poet's left, above the land, he hears the lark, which sings as it ascends until it's just visible as a speck against the sea. Hopkin was intrigued by the bird's ability to ascend in full song time after time during the day. It also sings while descending. The skylark's song, ever the same, seems to follow a musical score which may be compare to a skein of wool that's successively unwound as he signs in the sky and rewound when he returns to the earth so that each song is as fresh as the one before. The score the skylark seems to whirl of the winch of his throat in a wild ecstasy, not in the smooth or even flow but as it were in crisp curls of melody, whose every note may be compared to a lock of fleece waving in the air. The skylark pours out music without effort, and yet he pelts his fresh song with continuous effort till he has spilt and spent all and there is nothing left. He refreshes and sings again. This goes on forever.