Point of View

The poem is written from the first-person point of view of a speaker who watches a bird one morning. The speaker describes the way the bird hovers expertly in the air before swooping down in search of prey, and this scene inspires him to meditate on the power of God and the beauty of God's creation on earth. The first-person point of view helps create an intimate tone to the poem, both between the speaker and the bird and between the speaker and God. In fact, the speaker often interjects with expressions of emotion such as "O my chevalier" (11) and "ah my dear" (13) to communicate the awe he feels for God in the moment. As such, the speaker dramatizes the possibility of a personal relationship with God. As a Jesuit priest, Hopkins was interested in the way people experienced and cultivated their spiritual lives. He...