Felix Randal is a sonnet about a farrier, a blacksmith from
Hopkins' parish. It reflects on the farrier Felix Randal's dying, his last
illness, and the priest's compassion for him and on his former strength.
In the first quatrain, Hopkins
sketches the course of the farrier's illness as the large man faded away until
his thoughts became confused and four different disorders combined to kill him.
In the second quatrain, the poet
examines Felix's spiritual state. Initially, the farrier cursed the loss of his
former strength, but he became more patient as his religious faith increased.
He received "the sweet reprieve and ransom" in the sacrament of the
Holy Commission, which carries with it the promise of forgiveness and new life.
Hopkins later anointed him with holy oil. The poet implores God to forgive any
sin the farrier must have committed.
In the sestet the poet states that
looking after the sick can endear a priest in two ways - he may receive
affectionate gratitude from those he tends; and, secondly, knowing that he is
doing something worthwhile might make him less discontented with himself. The
comfort that the priest gave is perhaps the knowledge of God's love, and his
touch is perhaps the giving of a blessing. Poor Felix, who is addressed as a
child, is childlike in his helplessness, and also a child of God in the eyes of
the priest.
In the final tercet the priest
contrasts the last feeble days of the farrier with his earlier years, before
death or sickness were ever forethought of. He was then strong "big-boned
and hardy-handsome," and had an abundance of energy. His personality
harmonized with his smithy (blacksmith's workshop) - the forge built of random
or rough stone, the powerful men, the big horses.
The sonnet depicts two kinds of work
- the farrier using his physical strength at the forge, and the priest doing
his work among the sick and the dying with another kind of strength.
The poem is remarkable in its use of
Sprung Rhythm, which is a metre based on the counting of stresses (Stress
rhythm) instead of the counting of the syllables (running rhythm). Each line of
this poem contains six beats, with plentiful alliteration and compound words.
In this sonnet Hopkins reflects on
the long illness and death of Felix Randal, the farrier. The poet watched this
"big-boned and hardy-handsome" man decline, until he was broken by
"some / fatal four disorders" and his "reason rambled . . . .
" At first Randal had railed against his fate, but later, anointed by the
poet-priest, he developed a "heavenlier heart" and "sweet
reprieve."
The poet reflects on his role as a
spiritual healer: "This seeing the sick endears them to us, us too it
endears." While the priestly tongue and touch refreshed Felix Randal in
his illness, Randal's tears also touched the priest's heart, and so he is left
with a sense of loss and mourning when the man dies.
The most important line (9) of this
sonnet is: "This seeing the sick endears them to us, us too it
endears." While the poet is actually a priest referring to spiritual
healing, his sentiment expresses a central truth of any healing relationship.
Caring for the ill (in the sense of doing things for them) leads to care for
the ill (in the sense of connection and compassion); perhaps this is a
re-statement of Aristotle's theory of virtue in which one becomes a virtuous
person by performing good acts.
"Felix Randal" also
demonstrates Gerard Manley Hopkins's magnificent technical virtuosity as a
poet. It is an almost perfect Italian-style sonnet (two a-b-b-a rhymed
quatrains [the octave] followed by two rhymed c-c-d stanzas
Sources: voices.yahoo.com/critical-estimate-g-m-hopkins-poem-f... - United States-05.06.2012
D.N. Aloysius
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