The Windhover by Hopkins

By King Meera -
Hopkins is fangirling over the kestrel - extreme Romanticism

minion = subordinate/darling
dauphin = nobleman (title)

Hopkins is observing the bird on a brilliant morning, where the bird is the lord of the morning

dappled = spotted
dawn-drawn = morning brings him in

riding in the wind = hovering in gusty winds; it does not just fly - it rolls

metaphor of humility and contro in your own terms
not always the one who's highest that's in control

fact that he is witness to this bird lets him explore its inscape and the instress - it is an individual experience

compared to a horse (reins)
the windhover rules the sky with just two foldable wings

lives in the present = unaffected, gliding smoothly in the roughest, harshest winds

"My heart in hiding/Strirred for a bird" = gave up poetry, didn't write for years and then a bird comes along and makes him sit up and take notice again

achieve, mastery = master of himself, without pretense or self-consciousness
chevalier = knight
sillion = shiny soil turned over by plough
or uncountable (as in trillion, zillion)

sheer = shiny
energy of the brd reminds himself loamy, fresh soil

gash-gold vermillion = color of burning charcoal

as the bird descends, it looks like glowing embers are falling out of the sky, breaking open and revealing te gold vermillion.

gash = ref. to Christ coming down upon the Earth and the crucifixtion revealing the beauty of the Lord.

octet = rise
sextet = descent

divine epiphany

fall = fall of man which made coming of Christ necessary 

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