This week, I watched a video about understanding poetry (yes, poets need help with that too 😆). The example poem was “As Kingfishers Catch Fire” by Gerard Manley Hopkins. Hopkins has been a favorite of mine for a number of years, but I never chanced across this particular poem.
There are so many things to love about this poem and that exemplify excellent writing. First, the main idea—Created things, including people, reflect Christ just by being what He created them to be. Second, this poem is so musical; the words dance by with the most delightful sounds. Last, it is a sonnet, a form I’ve grown fond of over the years; as far as I’m concerned, the size and form of a sonnet is “just right” when it comes to poetry. I hope you will take a minute to read and enjoy “As Kingfishers Catch Fire.” If you want a more detailed breakdown of this poem, I’d also recommend the video I watched about it on the Youtube channel, “Writing with Andrew”: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jv6OA3QBRLM
As Kingfishers Catch Fire
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.
A Wandering Minstrel 