As Kingfishers Catch Fire Analysis

There's a lot of challenging imagery, intricate metaphors, and wonky syntax in "As Kingfishers Catch Fire." Thankfully for us, though, the general form of the poem is pretty straightforward. Fourte...

We have exactly one "I" in "As Kingfishers Catch Fire." Can you find it? Go ahead—we'll wait while you complete our version of a Where's Waldo? challenge. Good job—you discovered our speaker hi...

"In or out?" That's a question we often put to our cat, who loves to sit on our doorstep and just stare at us without making up his mind whether he's coming inside, or going outside. (You're really...

In line 4 of "As Kingfishers Catch Fire," the speaker describes how a ringing bell "finds tongue to fling out broad its name." In other words, it sends its sounds far and wide out into the world. F...

"As Kingfishers Catch Fire" is not so much a title as it is the first four words of the poem. Still, we all know that first impressions can leave a lasting impact, and that goes double when you're...

A Gerard Manley Hopkins poem is about as distinctive as they come. If you find your tongue twisting up in knots, while at the same time trying to chew on some profound insights into humanity, God,...

Not only does Hopkins throw some hefty philosophical and religious concepts your way, you're going to need to wade through some pretty intricate syntax, imagery, and sound techniques to get there....

After entering into the Catholic priesthood in 1867, Hopkins burnt all of his poetry. He didn't start writing again until 1875. (Source) Hopkins was an early environmentalist. He wrote against what...

This poem would rather think about the self, the soul, God, and Christ. Sexy stuff is just not on the bill today.