Sprung rhythm in The Windhover by Gerard Manley Hopkins Essay

Sprung rhythm in The Windhover by Gerard Manley Hopkins - Essay Example At first glance the structure can seem confusing with the sentences half finished and the verbs, adjectives, and nouns all mixed together without flow. However, this is part of Hopkins’s skill by being â€Å"fully in control of the energies of his sprung rhythm† (Rumens 2011). Carol Rumens sees this rhythm as allowing the poet to set the words â€Å"soaring across the first seven lines of the octet† (2011). Also, all the â€Å"ing† endings in the first eight lines act to unify and tie together the first stanza; just like the way the bird is inseparable from itself and its action so too are the words from their lines. For example, the bird is perfectly absorbed and engrossed in its act of â€Å"riding Of the rolling level underneath him steady air† (Hopkins lines 2-3). It merges and becomes one with the wind, just like all the different words fuse together and become one with the rhythm of the sonnet. Sprung rhythm also charges the lines with verbs t rying to capture the intensity of the bird’s actions. It gives the sentences a controlled speed, highlighting the way the bird pauses and abruptly springs into action.