Hopkins begins the sonnet with a plethora of poetic patterning such as alliteration and assonance. This is evident in the first two lines when the speaker says “morning morning’s minion” and “kingdom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon” with rich repetition of m and d letters. It is only after these vivid descriptions that the speaker introduces the central subject of the poem: the Falcon, specifically a Windhover. This technique shows the profound impact the bird has on the speaker, when they “caught” a rare sight of the bird in the morning. At the same time, it builds suspense for the reader in finding out what is so mesmerizing that the speaker is looking at. Hopkins continues to masterfully use poetic language in the first octet to bring the sight to life. The fast-paced, continuous rhymes, enjambment serves to capture the breathtaking beauty of the Windhover.

The sestet shifts to place the beauty and bravery of the bird into a broader context, as the poem is dedicated To Christ Our Lord. The sestet is written in present tense, unlike than the past tense of the octet which is a memory the speaker had of the bird. Rather than sensory details, the speaker speaks in a more spiritual and mysterious way, which was a bit more difficult for me to interpret. The metaphorical portrayal of “fire” is “a billion / Times told lovelier, more dangerous” and “gash gold-vermillion” creates a more divine image of existence, elevating the bird beyond its aerial presence. The Windhover is just one of God’s many creations of nature, and the speaker’s awe of its beauty in the sky is a testament their appreciation of God’s power.