7.
It dates from day
Of his going in Galilee;
Warm-laid grave of a womb-life grey;
Manger, maiden’s knee;
The dense and the driven Passion, and frightful sweat;
Thence the discharge of it, there its swelling to be,
Though felt before, though in high flood yet―
What none would have known of it, only the heart, being hard at bay
The Wreck of the Deutschland
By Gerard Manley Hopkins
The first part of this poem deals a lot with God’s finger and how he touches us (the opening word it in this stanza refers back to the stress felt in the previous one). So what is the nature of divine stress? Well, the best way to study how God reveals himself is by looking at when he actually walked here on earth, Of his going in Galilee. From his birth to the Passion and the resurrection.
Hopkins saw the Passion as the great discharge of God. Donald McChesney (who wrote an extensive commentary in the sixties) compares this with a meditation Hopkins wrote in 1884: The piercing of Christ’s side. The sacred body and the sacred heart seemed waiting for an opportunity of discharging themselves, and testifying their total devotion of themselves to the cause of man.
The line Warm-laid grave of a womb-life grey is a rather ambiguous one. Maybe Hopkins uses this as a simile for the Incarnation, the Son of God conceived in the womb of Mary, the Word made Flesh. Perhaps it’s a metaphor for the Resurrection where Christ ends this natural womb-life, and leads us to a supernatural life with Him in heaven.
But the divine stress was even felt before that - as in the predictions of the Old Testament or as that God has written in all men’s hearts - and it goes on even today, it is in high flood yet - as in the sacrifice of the holy mass.
I cant help associate high flood to the shipwreck. Perhaps Hopkins meant that God’s stress can be felt through the way of the cross, the sufferings of Christians here and today, just as with the poor nuns on board the Deutschland that frightful night of Dec. 7th. 1875.
February 18, 2008 at 10:43 pm
First, I want to thank you for your comment on one of my recent blog entries. But second and more importantly, I want to thank you for your insight into this poem. I remember studying Hopkins in college, and as a convert since then, I had forgotten that he also was a convert. I will be faithful reading your blog as you continue through Lent…also wanted to say I enjoyed your conversion story that I went back into your archives and read. As I undergo the Spiritual Exercises, it is something God is teaching me as well, how I need to learn to listen and not be so quick to speak.
February 19, 2008 at 1:34 am
This stanza gives me such a vivid image of the sweating of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane, as well as His Precious Blood and the Sacred Heart. It’s very powerful.
February 19, 2008 at 2:34 pm
You are helping me more than you perhaps realise, Joakim, and I’ll tell you why.
I’ve always kept GMH at a distance - good poetry but too hard for me to understand, and yet your commentary has helped me to realise I have more of an understanding of it than I thought.
When I read this yesterday, I drew my own conclusions as I went along, pondering each phrase, then when I read your commentary I was delighted to find our interpretations were similar.
I’m really enjoying this, thanks, Joakim.
February 22, 2008 at 1:34 am
Bryan: thank’s. You got a great blog on your own. I’ll put you on my blogroll when I got the time.
Gabrielle:
Ann: I’m so glad to hear this!