The Sea And The Skylark Summary

The Sea And the Skylark

                                                      - G.M Hopkins 

The Sea And The Skylark is a beautiful sonnet written by famous poet G.M Hopkins. The full name of Hopkins was Gerard Marney Hopkins. he was born in 1844 and he was influenced by the oxford movement. and he died in 1899 basically Hopkins was born in the Victorian Period and he wrote his works even in the same period but he was considered a modern poet due, due to his works being published in the 20th-century modern period. the poem the sea and the skylark was written in 1874. it is a sonnet and it has two parts that eight lines Octave and six lines Se-stet. the original title of this sonnet was walking by the sea. the poet describes the sea and the skylark in the octave and then he contrasts them with man in the sestet.

  At first, Hopkins describes the natural sounds of the sea and the singing of the skylark. these two fill him within joy. but in the sestet, his mood changes into gloom and despondency. he is deeply pessimistic and foresees the total decline and dissolution of the human race.  at the tide the sea continually roars, while at the ebb, there is a low lulling sound in the distance when it is over a quarter of a mile away as long as the moon's phases changes and it orbits the earth, the sea will be found repeatedly visiting the shore. 

 

 On his left, above the sand, Hopkins hears the Skylark which sings as it ascends until it is visible as a speak against the sky. the poet is surprised by the skylark's ability when it ascends in full song time after time during the day. it also sings while descending.

The poet ends the sonnet with a deep sense of loss at the thought that man is losing his identity. Hopkins presents a contrast b/w the life girting purify of nature and the sordidness of human civilization the town mentioned in the sonnet is a seaside town but the poem is not an attack. particularly on that town. it is a general and common meditation on nature and man or nature and its creature.