Analysis Of Binsey Poplars By G.M Hopkins SS2 Literature-in-English Lesson Note

BACKGROUND OF THE POET

Gerard Manley Hopkins was an English poet and a Jesuit priest, one of the Victorian writers. He was born on July 28, 1844 in Stratford. He attended St Beune’s college in North Wales to study Theology, where he learned Welsh and was encouraged by his superior to write poetry.

He died of typhoid fever on June 8 1889 and was buried in Dublin. Some of his poems include “Spring and Fall”, Carrion comfort” “God’s Grandeur” Hopkins’ poems center on the themes of the manifestation of God in nature. He used poetry to express his religious beliefs using images from nature.

BACKGROUND OF THE POEM

“Binsey Poplars” also known as “Felled (1879)” is a 19th-century poem and Gerard Hopkins was also a popular poet from this era also known as Victorian Literature. It refers to the literature that flourished when Queen Victoria ruled the British Empire between 1837 and 1901 Victorian era was a bridge between the Romantic era and the 20th-century era, which is why some characteristic features of romantic poetry are still reflected in the poem where Hopkins laments bitterly over the destruction of nature such as trees.

The heartless industrialization of the 19th century moved Hopkins to express what has been lost to cutting and unnecessary felling of trees (deforestation). Here the poet’s persona mourns the loss of a forest from human destruction, then urges readers to be mindful of damaging nature. Cutting down trees becomes a metaphor for the larger destruction caused by 19th-century urbanization and industrialization.

SUBJECT MATTER

The poem “Binsey Poplars” (1879) explores the destruction of natural objects which emanate from the indiscriminate felling of poplar trees (a tall straight tree with soft wood) in Binsey a small village in England. While the poet was wandering the north city he came across a line of tall trees cut down in the village of Binsey, with which he had long been familiar. Binsey Poplars is a metaphor for the destruction caused by 19th-century society.

LINE-BY-LINE ANALYSIS

In lines 1-5, the persona begins with the lamentation of the cutting of dear aspens, that is, a type of poplar tree with leaves that move even when there is very little wind whose delicate beauty resides not only in their appearance but in the way they create airy cages to cover the sunlight. The poet complains bitterly that those lovely trees have been “felled” “not spared, no one”. Not one of the “fresh following folded rank of the tree” was spared, he reveals…. Following folded rank refers to the simple arrangement of the line of trees with their heights and gaps between them making a vertical “fold”. The interlacing shadows of the branches of poplar are likened to the lacing on sandals- “that dandled a sandalled”.

In lines 7-11, the poet persona continues to lament over the cutting of those trees pointing out their importance or usefulness; for they even serve as shelter and provide a cool breeze. The speaker says that we do not know the implications of rendering our nature useless by cutting down the poplar trees that create beautiful scenery in the world. The speaker also sees it as an attack on nature and an insult to God’s creatures and creation. He uses the strong verbs” hew, ‘lack’ and rack” to suggest the seriousness of the destruction. To ‘delve’ means to dig something up, and to ‘hew’ means to chop something, usually with an axe. The speaker laments the fact that we (human beings) don’t know what we’re doing when we dig up, chop down, hack apart, or ‘rack’ (fill with pain) the natural world. Nature is also described here, using metonymy, as “the growing green”

In lines 12-15, the persona continues to ponder on man’s habit of destroying nature using a subtle tone here wherein he equates his love for poplars to love of a country (as in the countryside or nature, not the country of England) which is tender to touch both fragile and sensitive. The very being of nature, its essence is “slender” in the speaker’s view, like a thin almost as frail as a woman. The speaker goes further to describe the beauty of the poplars and equates it to that of a woman or eyeball using personification to reinforce the natural world because nature is sensitive “like this sleek and seeing ball But a prick will make no eye ball at all”

This means that cutting down the poplar trees will amount to removing one’s eyeball which could cause pain and anguish. This is the point that the speaker is making when he says that some injury “will make no eye at all” (Line 15). With this comparison, the persona discusses nature as so fragile and delicate that any harm to it will make it cease to the eye.

In lines 16-19, the poet maintains that even when we want to improve and repair our natural surroundings, even when we mean to mend her we are equally changing and damaging it. This singular act of tampering with nature has become a problem ever since the advent of human modern civilization. This is what the speaker means when he says that “we end her”. We stop nature from being natural when we attempt to fix it. This simply means that the persona disapproves of any form of deforestation and afforestation because they both don’t have any advantage of any kind as he continues to make his case in this final line. He notes that once we cut down or dig down nature (like the aspen trees), the next generation that comes after we have no idea how beautiful the environment was before. They (in the coming generation) would not be able to guess the beauty of their natural environment.

In lines 20-24, the persona describes the havoc perpetuated or harm done to nature which might be ten or twelve/strokes of havoc “unselve” – a figurative way to describe the jew of an ax to unselve” the natural beauty with the word “unselve”. The speaker suggests that cutting down those trees is not just changing the beauty of the scene, it goes away deeper than that-changing the very essence of the natural world itself. Those tree-choppers are undoing nature. The last three lines of the poem bring back to mind a theatrical soliloquy when we imagine the speaker in dismay at the destruction witnessed almost in a state of mumbling near-insanity. Cutting down and replanting of poplars in Binsey in 1879 reflects the endurance of nature itself.

In conclusion, this poem is a clarion call to all humans who are incapable of seeing the bigger picture. We may think that we are making progress in technology, but if we are sacrificing the earth in the process, it is in vain. It suggests a lack of care and foresight for those in future who will never know of this beauty. It pains the poet greatly that it takes such a short time for humans to destroy what has taken a lifetime to grow and flourish.

The word “havoc” suggests chaos and a lack of control; for us humans who ultimately destroy our environments by these actions.