The windhover

I caught this morning morning's minion,
Kingdom 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 bowbend:
The hurl and gliding rebuffed the big wind.

My heart is hiding
Stirred for a bird, the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!

Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
Buckle!  And the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous,
O my chevalier!

No wonder of it: sheer plod makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold vermillion

I caught this morning morning's minion,
Kingdom of daylight's dauphin.

by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) , "The windhover", from Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins, published 1918

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

by Sir Lennox Berkeley (1903-1989) , "The windhover", published 1968. [SATB a cappella]
by Reginald Smith Brindle (1917-) , "The windhover", published 1971. [soprano, tenor, and SATB a cappella]
by Newel Kay Brown (1932-) , "The windhover" [baritone and tenor trombone], from Hopkins Set, no. ?
by Arthur M. Campbell , "The windhover" [high voice and piano], from God's Grandeur
by John Mitchell (1941-) , "The windhover", op. 96 no. 4 (1993), from Four Sacred Songs, no. 4.
by John Frederick Paynter (1931-) , "The windhover", published 1972. [SATB a cappella]
by Michael Tippett (1905-1998) , "The windhover", published 1942. [madrigal: SATB a cappella]
by Grace Williams (1906-) , "The windhover", 1958 [alto and string sextet], from Six Songs by Gerard Manley Hopkins, no. ?
by Russell Woollen (1923-1994) , "The windhover", op. 28, published 1955. [TTBB and piano duet]

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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