tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post4068661351305167893..comments2024-03-17T05:07:13.710-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: meaning motion fans fresh our wits with wonder - quite true, Gerard Manley Hopkins, all too true.Amateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-25567594699486363452015-03-07T23:41:39.596-06:002015-03-07T23:41:39.596-06:00For Hopkins, "'quain' means something...For Hopkins, "'quain' means something like the angular excrescences of the conventional star-shape, or any similar pinked, 'fretted', or 'lacy' <i>scaping</i>" (Penguin 249). That starts out helpful and then falls apart. Hopkins uses "starriness" as a semi-synonym. Clouds can have "quains," trees have "quains," and Hopkins wants his own poems to have "quains." Inscapes with quains are likely to have a lot of instress, which is a good thing - beauty, sublimity, insights, all of that stuff.<br /><br />Hopkins was a neologist, which leads to a lot of circles. He means the thing he means.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-16395635338760864372015-03-07T14:30:00.688-06:002015-03-07T14:30:00.688-06:00Also, when I look up stormfowl in Yahoo, the secon...Also, when I look up stormfowl in Yahoo, the second hit is Hopkins' poem to Henry Purcell; it's like that joke in Pale Fire.LMRhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08538873868140070018noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-82502661994415469432015-03-07T14:28:50.364-06:002015-03-07T14:28:50.364-06:00OK, my dictionary tells me quain means: "adje...OK, my dictionary tells me quain means: "adjective describing anything that is crazy and out of control." Is that Hopkins' definition too? Or am I looking at something else? And if I got it right, <i>what</i> is describing as crazy and out of control?LMRhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08538873868140070018noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-6951644401173867962015-03-07T09:47:12.061-06:002015-03-07T09:47:12.061-06:00Read in order, "God's Grandeur" look...Read in order, "God's Grandeur" looks like the poem where Hopkins became a great poet. Nice to hear that undergraduates have not become immune to Hopkins.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-17406991403308000982015-03-07T09:09:34.702-06:002015-03-07T09:09:34.702-06:00I am always impressed by the ways Hopkins pushed a...I am always impressed by the ways Hopkins pushed and pulled, stretched and compressed rhythms and sounds by means of unique diction choices and arrangements. My favorite is "God's Grandeur." When I have assigned Hopkins poems to students, the response is usually one of bewilderment but a respectful awareness of something different and important. (Note: I suppose that is another way of describing encounters with the Holy Spirit. Hmmmm.)R.T.https://www.blogger.com/profile/13220814349193561823noreply@blogger.com