the fulcrum and the bear

Literature of the Chthonic Revolution: 

Entry #1 of an ongoing Blog Series

I’m a writer and an English Lit student from way back, so when trying to think my way into a new idea, I often create lists and clusters of authors whose work may fit with the theme. I thought it would be interesting to start an ongoing series on the blog about writers and literature that helps fill in bits and pieces of an evolving definition of “chthonic” revolution.

So who’s first? Despite a lot of authors who popped to mind, I kept coming back to Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889), English poet of the Victorian era and Jesuit priest. For him the expression of god was in everything – shining through most vividly in nature. Reading his poetry I came to the conclusion that his personal vision of Christianity was of the mystical variety.

Although he is famous for his praise of Nature in his poems, it isn’t that, or at least not that alone, that makes me want to include him in my pantheon of Chthonic writers—it is his language, the exquisite and exuberant music of his work which conveys so much more that just the words themselves.

An example, from: The Windhover --

I caught this morning morning's minion, king-

    dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding

    Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding

High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing

In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,

    As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding

    Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding

Stirred for a bird, – the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!

The alliteration! The rhyming, chiming, echoing, driving and swooping cadences of it! The poem doesn’t just tell you about the bird, doesn’t just describe the bird … In the act of reading the poem, the reader becomes the bird.

Poet Denise Levertov, in an amazing essay called, “Some Notes on Organic Form” (1965) states that: “Form is never more than a revelation of content”. The form of the poem, its sounds, cadences, shape, line-breaks, are all part of the revelation of the subject matter. You can see from the poem above that Hopkins is a great example of this. In fact, Levertov’s thoughts were deeply influenced by Hopkins. Hopkins invented the word “Inscape” to describe the inherent characteristics and qualities of an object (stones, fences, people, shells, animals, angels) expressed in its form. But its important to add that for Hopkins these forms are not static, they are in a constant state of expression. The sunflower, the apple tree, you, me, the windhover, the poem – we are all selving.

Here is a great example of Inscape from Hopkin’s poem, As kingfishers catch fire --

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame; 

As tumbled over rim in roundy wells 

Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's 

Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name; 

Each mortal thing does one thing and the same: 

Deals out that being indoors each one dwells; 

Selves — goes itself; myself it speaks and spells, 

Crying Whát I dó is me: for that I came. 

For Hopkins the ultimate drive of all life is this process of moving the inward outward - of bringing to form that which is our own unique pattern. And the poem has to catch not just the look of a thing but also that drive - the dynamic, ever-evolving manifestation of self.

So the connection to the Chthonic? ... more on that as we go! The blog is selving!