E-Lecture - Summary

Binsey Poplars is composed of two stanzas and employs a unique technique developed by Hopkins known as ‘sprung rhythm,’ a type of metre created from the rhythms noted in daily music and spoken language. In sprung rhythm, the first syllable is frequently stressed, whereas the multiple unstressed syllables may anticipate it. He also makes extensive use of internal rhyme and compound adjectives, lending the poem a sense of urgency that effectively depicts his anguish and horror at the loss of his beloved trees, which have been felled.

Binsey Poplars is written almost like an elegy or statement of sadness for the departed. Gerard Manley Hopkins inscribed the poem with ‘destroyed 1879’ in reference to the felled trees. To build the mood of particular grief, he commences the poem with the language of fondness, ‘My aspens dear,’ portraying the trees as if they were departed loved ones.

The sweet especial scene.’ The author claims that ‘after-comers,’ or individuals who visit the place in which Binsey Poplars formerly stood, would never know their magnificence because they were ‘felled’ in a few chops. As he wanders out of the poetry, Hopkins employs the phrase ‘lovely particular country landscape’ to underline nature’s purity and beauty, as well as to show his regret for the trees (23–24). The poem provides readers with a ‘sweet’ and pleasant ‘country vision’ in their minds, reminding them of nature’s beauty and serenity.

Gerald Manley Hopkins’ poetry lamentation in reaction to the Victorian industrial revolution’s assault on the destruction of the biosphere. The exploitation of natural resources, which destroys our ecosystem, stems from a ‘dominator’ economic ideology of infinite expansion. This theoretical foundation is intended to move past typical binary oppositions and instead stress multidisciplinary partnership views in their many descriptions of the natural environment and life, encompassing all so-called sentient and non-sentient beings.

Hopkins understood the value of literature and art in addressing modern challenges in order to inspire, enlighten, and reform, and he demonstrated this through his poems.