Felix Randal the farrier, O is he dead then? my duty all ended,
Who have watched his mould of man, big-boned and
hardy-handsome
Pining, pining, till time when reason rambled in
it, and some
Fatal four disorders, fleshed there, all contended?
Sickness broke him. Impatient, he cursed at first,
but mended
Being anointed and all; though a heavenlier heart
began some
Months earlier, since I had our sweet reprieve and
ransom
Tendered to him. Ah well, God rest him all road
ever he offended!
This seeing the sick endears them to us, us too it
endears.
My tongue had taught thee comfort, touch had
quenched thy tears,
Thy tears that touched my heart, child, Felix, poor
Felix Randal;
How far from then forethought of, all thy more
boisterous years,
When thou at the random grim forge, powerful amidst
peers,
Didst
fettle for the great grey drayhorse his bright and battering sandal!
ABOUT
THE POET
Gerard Manley Hopkins, (born July 28, 1844 in Stratford, Essex, England. Died on June 8, 1889 in Dublin), English poet and Jesuit priest, one of the most
individual of Victorian writers. His work was not published in collected form
until 1918, but it influenced many leading 20th-century poets.
Hopkins was a Jesuit priest.
A Jesuit is a member of the Society of
Jesus, a Roman Catholic order which includes priests and brothers — men in a
religious order who aren’t priests.
The Jesuit priest’s first priority is
his parishioners, his church’s congregation. They serve their parish through
involvement in local schools, hospitals and prisons. The priest must be
ordained by the church, which grants him permission to perform ceremonies and
conduct services in the church.
Hopkins wrote the poem during his grinding work in the poverty-stricken
districts of Liverpool.
TITLE
The title character is known from
extrinsic evidence to have been a thirty-one-year-old blacksmith named Felix
Spencer, who died of pulmonary tuberculosis. However, in the poem he is Felix
Randal.
Note this is an eponymous poem: the title
and character have the same name.
[An eponymous hero or
heroine is the character in a play or book whose name is the title of that play
or book.]
STRUCTURE / FORM
The poem, Felix Randal, is a sonnet with an Italian or Petrarchan rhyme
scheme (abba, abba, ccd, ccd).
In the octet the situation around Felix
Randal’s disorder (health issue) is explained.
In the sestet, the speaker expresses his
emotional response to the death of Felix Randal. He speaks directly to Felix
Randal and expresses his regard for him.
LINE BY LINE ANALYSIS
Line
1: Felix Randal the farrier, O is he dead then? my duty all ended,
Farrier – a blacksmith shoeing horses. He does the work of making horseshoes, fitting and nailing them to the
horse’s hooves, as well as undertaking the skilled trimming and tending of the
hooves.
It was a
very “masculine” profession in feeling and required a good deal of strength as
well as practical anatomical knowledge of horses.
O is he dead
then? This question suggests a casual response to the
news of the death of Felix Randal. It is as if someone announces the death and
there is no shock from the speaker. Instead, the response suggests that the
speaker expected Felix Randal to pass away.
My duty all
ended – the speaker
realizes that Felix Randal’s death means the end of dutiful visiting, the end
of watching the man’s decline from outstanding vigour into bodily debility.
Duty – the duties of a priest were to minister to the sick and
dying by praying for them, reading the Scripture to them, anointing them and
administering the Holy Communion to them. All these responsibilities were
offered to Felix Randal but now end because he has passed away.
Line
2: Who have watched his mould of man, big-boned and hardy-handsome
Mould of man – metaphor. Felix Randal’s stature is
compared to a mould.
A mould is a distinctive shape in which a thing
is made. This means that something is made for a specific function and has the
distinctive character or nature of what has shaped it.
Felix Randal’s physique is the perfect
or distinctive stature of a man – the perfect shape of a man to perform the
specific function of shoeing horses.
Mould also has the connotation of influencing
or guiding someone’s character. This is appropriate in the context of the poem,
as Hopkins, the priest, converts Felix Randal and moulds him to accept the will
of God.
Big-boned, hardy-handsome – alliteration heightens the unique
physical shape and appearance of Felix Randal. He is not feminine in any way.
This suggests that his physical build and appearance is suited for the work of
a farrier. He is larger than average build.
Line
3: Pining, pining, till time when reason rambled in it, and some
Pining,
pining, meaning declining and weakening; losing
physical strength
Rambled – talk continuously
Reason rambled in it – his mind had become
confused
Line
4: Fatal four disorders, fleshed there, all contended?
Four disorders – today we would refer to ‘complications’.
It could be a reference to the four humours (ancient medical ailments) that
were believed to rule the human body: blood, yellow bile, black bile and
phlegm.
Fleshed there – manifested in his
body
All contended – the four medical
complications struggled against each other, competed against each other
Line
5: Sickness broke him. Impatient, he cursed at first, but mended
Sickness broke him – take note of the word ‘broke’.
On the one hand the words means render inoperable
or ineffective. In other words, the sickness incapacitates Felix from carrying
out his farrier function.
Also, the word means to make submissive or obedient.
In this case, it is a metaphor where
Felix Randal is compared to a horse that is broken in – brought into submission
by the horse handler. The sickness is the horse handler that breaks 'in' the physical
health of Felix Randal (the horse).
Cursed at first – he rejected the sickness at the
beginning.
It is quite paradoxical
that physically strong men find it difficult to accept death.
The dying Felix Randal with his initial
defiance slowly gives in to accepting the sickness.
He could be cursing the loss of
his former physical strength.
But mended – he accepted / made peace with
it.
Line
6: Being anointed and all; though a heavenlier heart began some
Being anointed – this refers
to the Catholic rite of extreme unction during which a person in danger of
death was marked with blessed oil on his forehead.
And all –
refers to all the other ministry activities that the priest would administer to
a severely sick person: prayer, counselling, Holy Communion, etc.
Heavenlier heart – holier heart. This refers to a
change in emotion or attitude that Felix Randal had after he received the
ministry from the priest. He changes from not accepting the sickness to
accepting it as the will of God.
Line
7: Months earlier, since I had our sweet reprieve and ransom
Reprieve – temporary improvement, relief from
harm or discomfort
Ransom – deliverance, being saved from
punishment, therefore, salvation. Holy Communion carries with it forgiveness
and new life.
Line
8: Tendered to him. Ah well, God rest him all road ever he offended!
Tendered to him – ministered to him. The priest
had given to him all that was necessary to help and prepare his soul to return
to heaven.
Ah well – an interjection expressing relief
God rest him – this was an
old-fashioned expression used to show respect when you are talking about
someone who is dead.
It also means that God would grant
Felix Randal forgiveness from anyone that he offended. In other words, that he
would not be tormented for any offences but rather rest in peace.
All roads – an Irish expression meaning ‘all
ways’.
Ever he offended – may God forgive him
for all that he might have hurt in his life journey.
Line
9: This seeing the sick endears them to us, us too it endears.
It is interesting that
Hopkins portrays the relationship as reciprocal. Hopkins and Felix are both
endeared to each other.
Endears – from
the word ‘dear’ which is a term of endearment based on affection for someone.
In this case the priests
are (he uses the plural pronoun ‘us’) affectionately
drawn to the sick because of compassion and the sick are drawn to the priest
because of their dependency on the ministry of the priests.
Endears also
means attracted to
Read the line this way
in order to understand it better:
This seeing the sick
attracts them to us, us too it attracts (this attraction is mutual. Thus, a
pastoral relationship is expressed in this line.
There is a bond of compassion and
trust. Both exchanged their sympathy, empathy and kindness. Hopkins and Randal
share similar feelings towards life. Hopkins enjoys by getting something out of
life by giving his affection to other people through his priesthood. This
mutuality is emphasized by the word “us”, which, obviously, evokes a certain
bonding between the two people.
Line
10: My tongue had taught thee comfort, touch had quenched thy tears,
Tongue – my words of encouragement, reading of
Scripture
Touch – with reference to the priest’s
responsibilities, touch was an important method of ministry to the sick through
the laying on of hands (touch). This is a reference to the Scripture in Mark
16:18 – You shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. Touch can also
suggest the giving of the blessing.
Quenched – stopped
Line
11: Thy tears that touched my heart, child, Felix, poor Felix Randal;
Touched – here the word is an adjective describing the
emotion that Felix’s tears brought to the speaker.
Felix Randal's tears also touched
the priest's heart, so he is left with a sense of loss and mourning when the
man dies. Their common humanity supported each with compassion.
Child – suggests that since Felix has been
reconciled to God he has regained his former purity in the eyes of God –
suggests innocence
Child – also refers to the state of the now
dead Felix Randal. He was the mould of man before the sickness struck him but
now he has been brought to a vulnerable level of an innocent child. He is now
child-like because he is dependent on the priest to take care of him.
He is child-like in his helplessness
and also a child of God in the eyes of the priest.
Poor Felix Randal – expresses Hopkins’ empathy
for Randal. Hopkins is left with a sense of loss and mourning when Felix Randal
dies.
Line
12: How far from then forethought of, all thy more boisterous years,
Forethought of – refers to thinking
in advance or ahead. No one could have thought that the strong Randal would be
overcome by sickness in his former boisterous years.
Boisterous – full of life, exuberance
This line expresses the difference between
Felix Randal before the disorders broke him. It was not possible to think then
that he would later have to succumb to the disorders. He was strong, full of
life and there was no indication that he would ever be subjected to the
sickness.
Line
13: When thou at the random grim forge, powerful amidst peers,
Grim – means unattractive or forbidding – describing the
workshop
Forge – a blacksmith’s workshop
Powerful amidst peers – superior among other men his
age
His work as a
blacksmith garnered him respect, as he was “powerful amidst peers”.
Line 14: Didst fettle for
the great grey drayhorse his bright and battering sandal!
Fettle
– trim the horse shoe
Great
grey – note the alliteration and the rhythm of this last line imitates the battering sound of the work in the blacksmith’s workshop (forge).
Dray - a cart used for carrying heavy loads
Drayhorse – a powerful, strong
horse that was specifically used to carry heavy loads
Bright - the horseshoe has
just been filed into shape so it is bright and new.
Battering – repeated blows as
one would use when you are beating a horseshoe into shape.
Battering is also an
example of onomatopoeia: the explosive ‘b’ sound at the beginning gives the
impression of a blunt object hitting something; this is followed by the hard
and sharp ‘t’ sounds, which once again resemble the sound of someone striking
metal.
THEME
And Hopkins tried to make the reader aware that no matter how strong a
person is; eventually that person will die.
Basically the poem deals with the theme of physical strength, spiritual
strength and life and death. Furthermore we see the priest as a spiritual
healer and also the lasting bond of the healer and the healed.
TONE
At the beginning the tone
is casual and unaffected (shows no emotion) as the death of Randal is commented
on by the rhetorical question, “O he is dead then?” and the “my duty all ended.”
In stanza two the tone is
accepting of the inevitable death of Randal.
In the sestet, the tone is
one of loss, pain and empathy in “Thy tears that touched my heart.”
REFERENCES
Clare McIntyre, et al.
(2015). Universal Worlds.
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