"Binsey Poplars" - Gerard Manley Hopkins.
"Binsey Poplars - Felled 1879" is a poem written by the great English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. He was born in 1844 in Essex and died in 1877 of typhoid fever. He converted to Catholicism and decided to become a Jesuit priest. It is said that the author was afraid of losing his sight. He believed that by making his work religious-themed he might make poetry a part of his religious vocation. This poem is about the love for nature that Hopkins feels inside him and in more detail, the cutting down of the poplars. .
First of all, I will analyse the title that already tells us the main theme of the poem. Binsey is a small village just outside Oxford and the Poplars are a kind of tree with the branches that grow upwards facing the sky. The verb "Felled" means cut down and so we can immediately understand that the poem will talk about the Poplars in Binsey that were cut down in 1879. This title already makes me think of a sad poem because it is talking about the "death" of some trees. I also think that the author by giving us the date wants to make us understand the significance of this event; it gives me the same impression as if a real human being has died. .
This poem is divided into two stanzas, the first one formed of nine lines, while the second one has sixteen. Immediately by reading the first three words of the first line: "My aspens dear" we can assume that the poem is addressed to the poplars and at the same time I can personally judge it as an emotional way to write to some trees. Then the author goes on by describing how the poplars create "airy cages" with their shape and leaves to tame and capture the sunlight. Already in these two first verses we can notice the use of alliteration: .
"quelled, quelled or quenched in leaves the leaping sun". I think alliteration has been used here to represent the energy of the trees. The third verse instead is basically formed of one word, "felled" that's written three times.