As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame… 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.
Gerard Manley Hopkins
As Kingfishers Catch Fire
Topic: Self-Cultivation & Health, Society & Civil Religion
As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
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.
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 —
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.
Gerard Manley Hopkins was born on July 28, 1844, in Stratford, Essex, England, into a devout Anglican family. His early life was marked by a keen interest in religion and the arts, nurtured within a creative and intellectual environment. Hopkins attended Highgate School and later Balliol College, Oxford, where he excelled in classics and literature. It was during his time at Oxford that Hopkins converted to Roman Catholicism, profoundly influenced by the works of John Henry Newman, a cardinal and leader in the Oxford Movement. This conversion was a pivotal moment in Hopkins' life, leading him eventually to join the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1868. His decision reflected a deep spiritual calling, with his faith becoming the central pillar of his life and work.
As a Jesuit priest, Hopkins' life was one of spiritual duty and intellectual rigor. He was sent to various parts of Britain for his religious and scholarly duties, which included teaching and parish work. Despite the demands of his religious vocation, Hopkins continued to cultivate his passion for poetry. He developed an innovative style, notably his concept of 'sprung rhythm', a departure from traditional metrical patterns, which gave his poetry a unique musical quality and a vivid sense of natural speech. His poetry was infused with rich imagery and profound spiritual themes, often reflecting his intense observations of nature and deep religious convictions. Hopkins' poetry remained largely unpublished during his lifetime, as he saw his writing as an extension of his religious vocation, meant primarily for self-expression and glorification of God rather than public acclaim.
Hopkins' legacy as a poet was not fully recognized until after his death on June 8, 1889. His friend and fellow poet, Robert Bridges, posthumously published his works, revealing Hopkins' profound influence on the world of Victorian poetry. His poems, such as "God’s Grandeur" and "The Windhover," are celebrated for their innovative use of rhythm, language, and imagery, and their deeply spiritual nature. Hopkins' work bridges the realms of art and faith, presenting a vision of the world imbued with divine presence and beauty. His exploration of nature and religion, conveyed through his unique poetic voice, has established him as a significant figure in English literature and a source of inspiration for readers seeking a deeper understanding of the spiritual dimensions of life and the natural world.
Hopkins, Gerard Manley. "As Kingfishers Catch Fire." Poems and Prose by Penguin Classics in 1985.
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Theme: Being in Self
About This Gerard Manley Hopkins Quotation [Commentary]
Gerard Manley Hopkins begins with things that naturally show what they are. “As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame,” stones ring in wells, and the swung bell “finds tongue to fling out broad its name.” Each thing gives outward form to its own nature. So when he writes, “Each mortal thing does one thing and the same: / Deals out that being indoors each one dwells,” he brings the poem to its center. What is within is given out. “Selves—goes itself” names that movement with unusual force and clarity.
That is why “Whát I dó is me: for that I came” is so strong. Gerard Manley Hopkins is not speaking of self-expression in a loose sense, but of a life answering to its own deepest truth. “Myself it speaks and spells” shows the self becoming known in what one does. The poem does not separate being from action. It holds them together. A person does not invent a self and then display it. One “deals out that being indoors each one dwells.” The question beneath the lines is whether one’s life truly speaks that inward being.
Then Gerard Manley Hopkins says more: “the just man justices; / Keeps grace: thát keeps all his goings graces.” Justice and grace become visible in action. From there the poem opens into its Christ-centered vision: one “Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is— / Chríst— for Christ plays in ten thousand places.” The movement of the sonnet is careful and whole: each creature speaks its nature; each person lives or fails to live that inward truth; the just person keeps grace; and Christ appears “through the features of men’s faces.” In that light, the self is most fully itself when grace is lived and made visible.
Brother David Steindl-Rast’s Commentary [Excerpt*]
I would like to read a poem to you in celebration. It is a poem that is quite central to his [Thomas Merton’s] thought and quite central to the notion of peacemaking about becoming who you can be, about being happy with what you are, and about having a good time. It is a poem of which Merton himself was very fond. You might remember that, at one time, he wanted to write his thesis here at Columbia on Hopkins [Gerard Manley Hopkins] and then ended up writing it on Blake, but Hopkins was very close to his heart all his life. I will read this poem hoping that it is familiar to many of you because it doesn’t come across all that easily. Then I would like to illustrate it with a few parallels from Merton’s own writings. It’s the sonnet “As Kingfishers Catch Fire.”
It almost sounds like a paraphrase on this when Merton writes: “The forms and individual characters of living and growing things, of inanimate beings, of animals and flowers and all nature, constitute their holiness in the sight of God. Their inscape.” That word obviously gives away Hopkins, “Their inscape is their sanctity. It is the imprint of His wisdom and His reality in them.” That holds not only for things, that holds for everyone of us if we have what Merton calls “the humility to be myself.” He writes: “If I find him, I will find myself, and if I find my true self, I will find Him… The only One Who can teach me to find God is God Himself, Alone.”
―Steindl-Rast, David. The Peacemaker: Merton’s Critique and Model. Inaugural Thomas Merton Lecture, Merton Center, Columbia University, 1 Dec. 1978. Halle! Communications, 1978.
[*This address, delivered by Brother David Steindl-Rast in Low Memorial Library Rotunda on 1 December 1978, was the Inaugural Thomas Merton Lecture of the Merton Center at Columbia University and the initial event of the 1978 “Merton Commemoration.” by Halle! Communications.]
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