Binsey Poplars- A Comprehensive Analysis
The Poem
My aspens dear, whose airy
cages quelled,
Quelled or quenched in
leaves the leaping sun,
All felled, felled, are all
felled;
Of a fresh and following
folded rank
Not spared, not one
That dandled a
sandalled
Shadow that swam or
sank
On meadow and river and
wind-wandering weed-winding bank.
O if we but knew what we do
When we delve or
hew-
Hack and rack the growing green!
Since country is so
tender
To touch, her being so
slender,
That, like this sleek and
seeing ball
But a prick will make no
eye at all,
Where we, even
where we mean
To mend her we end
her,
When we hew or
delve:
After-comers cannot guess
the beauty been.
Ten or twelve, only ten or
twelve
Strokes of havoc
unselve
The sweet especial
scene,
Rural scene, a rural
scene,
Sweet especial rural
scene.
About the Poet
Gerard Manley Hopkins was born in 1844 in Stratford, Essex near London. He attended Balliol College, University of Oxford.
He was one of the famous English poets whose work expresses an intense response to the natural world.
In 1866, he converted to Roman Catholicism and two years later, when he entered the Jesuit Order, he destroyed the poetry he had already written.
In 1877, his superiors in the church encouraged him to write again.
Some of his works are, “The Wreck of the Deutschland,” “The Windhover,” “Pied Beauty,” “Don Scotus’ Oxford,” “Binsey Poplars”.
These poems’ subject matters are natural objects. Most of his works, like other poets of his category, were published after his death in 1889.
The Poetic Meaning of the Difficult Words and Expression
Poplars- Deciduous trees that lose their leaves in winter or dry season
Quelled- Stopped
Quenched- Stopped
Leaping- A large amount
Felled- To cut down
Dandled a sandalled- In a row
Meadow- A field covered in grass
Delve or hew- To cut something large
Tender- Easily damaged
Sleek- Beautiful
Prick- To make a very small hole in something
Especial- Of great importance
CONTENT
Binsey Poplars is a poem of nature written by Gerald Manly Hopkins in 1879. Binsey is a village in the northwest of Oxford, England. It is very close to Port Meadow on the bank of the River Thames.
Poplars are deciduous trees that lose their leaves in winter or the dry season.
This poem is born out of the felling of a row of Poplar trees near the village of Binsey, which is why the poem is titled Binsey Poplars.
Hopkin had been a student at Oxford; hence he was familiar with these trees and the areas covered by the trees.
Felling these trees is painful to Hopkins. This poem is just like writing an elegy in respect of a departed soul.
The poet bemoans the felling of the trees he refers to as “aspens dear” in the poem.
The appearances of the trees are not only beautiful, but they also created “airy cages” to cover the rays of the sun; it provides shades for the people.
He goes further to describe their arrangements and the felling of the trees to an army of soldiers massacred.
He also remembers painfully the way they lined and provided shade along the bank where the river and meadow met.
“That dandled a
sandalled
Shadow that swam or
sank
On meadow and river and
Wind- wandering weed-winding bank.”
The poet grieves over the total destruction of this gift of nature when he goes Biblical that the destroyers do not know the implications of their actions by cutting down the trees.
This is similar to Jesus’ utterances while being crucified, “father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
“O if we but knew what we do
When we delve or
hew-
Hack and rack the growing green!
Since country is so
tender
To touch, her being so
slender,” hi
He also comments on the beautification of the landscape by the trees that are now destroyed.
The beauties are not seen again and also the generations yet unborn would not be able to view and enjoy the beauties, since the trees are no more there.
They are felled within a very short time.
“When we hew or
delve:
After-comers cannot guess
the beauty been.
Ten or twelve, only ten or
twelve
Strokes of havoc”
With the felling of these trees, the landscape as well as the beauty has been totally altered and destroyed, that is what the poet refers to as, “unselve.”
Themes
Theme of Nature: The subject matter discussed in the poem, “Poplars” are natural things made by God. The poet laments the destruction of this natural gift of nature in the poem.
Beauties of Nature: The felling of these trees pains the poet the more because of the beautification of the landscape by the trees.
The trees cover the rays of the sun thereby providing shade for the people and every other object under the trees.
“My aspens dear, whose airy
cages quelled,
Quelled or quenched in
leaves the leaping sun,”
Theme of Ignorance: The poet concludes that the people do not know what they were doing while cutting down the trees, and that if they knew they wouldn’t embark on such a destructive mission.
Tenderness: The poet points to the fact that the earth is so tender that a slight touch might cause a lot of destruction to it.
He compares this with the eye that the tissues can easily be destroyed by a careless touch.
He thereby condemns the feeling of Poplars, which much harm must have been done to the earth.
Destruction: This theme gives birth to this poem. It is the destruction of the Poplar trees that annoys Hopkins and prompts him to compose this poem of nature.
He was familiar with the trees when he was a student in Oxford.
Poetic Devices
Alliteration: We have the use of this extensively in the poem thus:
“Quelled or quenched………….”
“All felled, felled, are all felled,”
“Of a fresh and following folded rank”
“Not spared, not come”
“Shadow that swam or sank”
“………. wind-wandering weed winding bank”
“O if we but knew what we do”
“When we delve or hew”
“…………the growing green!”
“Since the country is so tender”
“That, like this sleek and seeing ball”
“Where we, even where we mean”
“When we hew or delve”
“After-comers cannot guess the beauty been”
“Ten or twelve, only ten or twelve”
“Strokes of havoc unselve”
“The sweet especial scene”
“Rural scene, a rural scene,”
“Sweet especial rural scene.”
Onomatopoeia: This is a combination of sounds in a word that resembles or suggests what the word refers to. In the poem, “all” and “felled” sound like when an axe is struck on a tree trunk.
“All felled, felled, are all felled,”
Personification: This is giving the attributes of a living thing to non-living things.
“Shadow that swam or sank”
“To touch her, her being so slender”
“To mend her, we end her”
Assonance: This is the repetition of vowel sounds in a line of a poem as we have in this poem thus:
“……….in leaves the leaping sun,”
“All felled, felled, are all felled”
“That dandled a sandalled”
“Shadow that swam or sank”
“To mend her, we end her”
“Ten or twelve, only ten or twelve”
Biblical Allusion: This is used where the poet concludes that the people, by destroying and felling the trees do not know the enormity of what they are doing.
This is similar to Jesus’ comment while being crucified, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Analogy: According to the Dictionary of English, it is a relationship of resemblance between two situations, people, or objects, especially when used as a basis for explanation or extrapolation.
It is used where the poet describes the tenderness of the earth, that by felling the trees, much harm has been done to the earth.
He then uses the analogy of the eye that the tissues are tender, that a mere touch on it might destroy it.