FELIX RANDAL –

GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS

FELIX RANDAL – GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS

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 dray horse his bright and battering

sandal!

GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS

Born 28 July 1844 died 8 June 1889 he was an English poet, who

converted to Catholicism, and became a Jesuit priest.

His manipulation of prosody (the rhythm and pattern of poetry and

language) and his use of imagery established him as an innovative writer

of religious verse.

Born in Stratford, Essex (now in Greater London)

He was the first of nine children to Manley and Catherine (Smith)

Hopkins.

He was christened at the Anglican church of St John’s, Stratford.

In July 1866, whilst studying at Oxford, he decided to become a Roman

Catholic, and was received into the Roman Catholic Church on 21

October 1866.

GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS

The decision to convert estranged him from both his family and a number of his acquaintances.

After his graduation in 1867, Hopkins was provided with a teaching post at the Oratory in Birmingham.

May 1868 Hopkins firmly “resolved to be a religious.” less than a week later he felt the call to enter the ministry and decided to become a Jesuit.

The sonnet “Felix Randal” was probably written in the late 1870’s, Hopkins then in his mid thirties.

At that time he was a parish priest of the Roman Catholic church in Liverpool.

He served in various parishes in England and Scotland.

BACKGROUND:

“Felix Randal” is a sonnet with an Italian or Petrarchan rhyme scheme (abba, abba, ccd, ccd);

It was published in 1918, even though it was written in 1880.

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.

Father Gerard Manley Hopkins, while a curate( priest) in a slum parish in Liverpool, visited him often, administered the last sacraments, and officiated at his funeral.

The poem is largely romantic self-expression. There is little or no ironic separation between the “I” (the speaker within the poem) and the author (the historical Hopkins outside the poem), so the “I” may be taken as a Roman Catholic priest reflecting on the news of Randal’s death.

farrier a blackmith who specialises in shoeing horses

mould shape, type, build

hardy strong, tough

pining decline or waste away from disease

ramble talk disconnectedly, aimlessly or confusedly

fatal deadly, terminal, causing death

disorders illness, disease

contended compete, fight

anointed blessed by a priest, apply oil in a religious ceremony

reprieve a temporary improvement

ransom deliverance, redemption, being saved

tendered offered, presented

offended displease or anger, hurt a person’s feelings

endears make beloved by, makes one like them

quenched put out, stopped

boisterous rough, noisy, lively

random with great force or violence (old meaning), without method

grim fierce, harsh, merciless

forge a furnace for melting metal in a blacksmith’s workshop

fettle trim a horse shoe

dray-horse a large, powerful working horse

battering strike repeatedly with hard blows

SUMMARY:

In “Felix Randal” Hopkins (the parish priest) mourns the

death of a parishioner, a village blacksmith.

He writes about the man’s death; talks about his fatal

illness(es); expresses pity about his death

In the climax he contrasts the weak, sick, dying Felix Randal

with his former self:

Strong and proud doing very physical demanding work

(making iron shoes for the hoofs of carthorses).

Hopkins regards this works as something mythic, almost

divine, the creating with metal and fire.

SUMMARY:

Living in the Liverpool slums, the scholar Hopkins was as out of his

comfort zone (the university and the seminary) as Felix Randal was

from his (the forge) when he lay in his sickbed.

The fact that these two men were out of their “natural habitat” is what

brings the two men together in a totally unpredictable friendship –

“How far from then forethought of” – and a deep religious

relationship of father and child,

Tiny Father Hopkins, barely five feet tall and scarcely a hundred

pounds.

…“child Felix, poor Felix Randal,” the giant blacksmith slowly

dying.

Felix Randal the farrier, O he is 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?

Hopkins ponders the death of Felix Randal, and he puts it in the form of

two questions:

1. “O is he dead then?”

2. “Is my duty as priest to him ended…?”

But he does not stop there; he recalls “his mould (kind, form) of man,

big-boned and hardy-handsome,”

He sees in his memory the sturdy body of Felix, handsome in a hardy,

well-built and imposing way.

But he sees also the changes wrought by illness – that sturdy body

“pining, pining,” meaning declining and weakening.

Finally he sees the time when about four ultimately fatal physical

disorders (what we call today “complications”) manifested in his body

(“fleshed there”).

These disorders all struggled with one another and ultimately killed the

poor man, so ill near the end that his mind had become confused

(“reason rambled in it”).

Though it may seem peculiar to us, Hopkins puts the question mark not

after “my duty all ended,” but all the way at the end of the long

description of the body and its fading.

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!

The illness, was just too much for the young man as his body broke down.

He lost his calm and cursed and swore, but became more resigned to

death (“but mended”) after “being anointed and all,” that is, after having

received the Catholic rite of extreme unction during which a person in

danger of death was marked with blessed oil on his forehead.

Hopkins believed Felix had actually begun to become more spiritual (“a

heavenly heart began”) some months earlier when Hopkins had given him

(“tendered to him”) the Eucharist, the bread Catholics believe to be

changed into the body of Jesus, which Hopkins calls “our sweet reprieve

and ransom.”

Hopkins finishes the verse with an exclamation:

“Ah, well, God rest him all road ever he offended!”

Hopkins is using “rest” here with a double meaning.

First he means “God keep him,” using “rest” with the meaning it has

in the old Christmas carol “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen”;

second he means “God give him rest,” as is sung in the mass for the

dead: Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine… “Rest eternal give them,

Lord…”

And Hopkins’ wish is that God may keep Felix and give him rest “all

road ever he offended.”

Here Hopkins uses a regional northern English usage, “all road”,

meaning ‘all ways’.

So the meaning is, “May God give him peace and rest no matter all the

ways in which he may have offended in life.”

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;

Hopkins remarks on his visits to Felix in a general way, saying “This

seeing the sick endears them to us” – we develop an affection for the ill

when we visit them and see their suffering, yet it also “endears” us – not

only endearing us to the ill, but we tend to become better, more

compassionate ourselves.

Hopkins had comforted Felix with soothing words, (“My tongue had

taught thee comfort”), had laid his hand upon him fondly (“touch had

quenched thy tears,” and the tears Felix shed also touched Hopkins

deeply, as we see in the lamenting, simple words, “child, Felix, poor Felix

Randal.”

Hopkins had developed a real affection for the man – Felix Randal,

and he is underplaying it here because he does not want to admit its

depth to himself or to others.

He seems to have been struck by how different a man Felix was in

form and function from the quiet, physically undeveloped and

bookish nature of Hopkins himself.

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!

Hopkins ponders how far Felix was, in the weak and broken condition

of his last days, from the boisterous years of his previous life when he

stood working at the “random grim forge.”

“Random” here is used in its old meaning of “with great force or

violence,” and “grim” in its old sense of “fierce.”

Hopkins deliberately blurs the application of the adjectives so that they

apply not only to the fiery forge but also to the hammering of the horseshoe on the anvil and to Felix himself.

Hopkins sees Felix standing, powerful and grim, before the fierce fire of

the forge, violently beating the white-hot metal of the horseshoes with

great force behind the blows of the hammer.

There he stood in those happier, earlier days, “powerful amidst peers,”

that is, he stood strong amid the strength of fire and iron and massive

horses, as well as being strong among other sturdy men of his kind.

He could have had no forethought in those days of strength of his future

illness and final fatal weakness.

So blissfully unaware of what lay in store for him, he fettled (using

“fettle” in its sense of “to make ready”) a horseshoe for the great, gray

drayhorse (a horse that pulls a dray – a large wagon for transporting

goods).

Hopkins calls the horseshoe “his (the horse’s) bright and battering

sandal,” because horseshoes not only become bright when they are

forged white-hot, but also become bright when polished by wear.

The horseshoe is “battering” not only because the farrier batters it with a

hammer when making it, but also because the iron shoe batters against

the cobblestones of the streets as the horse pulls the wagon.

Hopkins is merely using “sandal” here because it is a word he likes and

because it makes a pleasant contrast when combined with the word

“battering”; but some think he is also referring to a particular type of

19th century horseshoe that was once literally called a “sandal.”

In this sonnet, Hopkins reflects on the long illness and death of Felix

Randal, and comments on his own role (as priest) in caring for the dying

man.

Hopkins has, in ministering to Felix Randal’s soul, developed a sense of

compassion and connection with the dying man.

Hopkins recalls the big fellow who was equal to the most physically

demanding job of shoeing the largest horses, and describes his decline as

he became sick: ‘Sickness broke him’ (line 5) as be began to lose his hold

on ‘reason’ (line 3).

Hopkins makes a distinction between the physical and spiritual health of

Randal, and takes some comfort or ‘sweet reprieve’ (line 7) from the fact

that Randal had been administered the ‘last rites’ to prepare his soul for

the afterlife.

–

“Felix Randal” is a sonnet with an Italian or Petrarchan rhyme scheme –

abba, abba, ccd, ccd

This sonnet consists of two a-b-b-a rhymed quatrains (the octave)

followed by two rhymed c-c-d stanzas making up the sestet.

Each section has a particular function, allowing Hopkins to develop his

theme.

The octave states the situation and establishes the background leading

up to Randal’s death.

The sestet allows the speaker’s emotional state to find voice as he

addresses the dead man directly, and expresses his regard for him. His

own sense of loss and sorrow is made explicit in this section of the

poem.

In the FIRST QUATRAIN Hopkins sketches the course of the farrier’s

illness as the large man faded away until his thoughts became confused

and four different disorders combined to kill him.

In the SECOND QUATRAIN the poet examines Felix’s spiritual state.

Initially, the farrier cursed the loss of his former strength, but he

became more patient as his religious faith increased.

He received “the sweet reprieve and ransom” in the sacrament of the

Holy Commission, which carries with it the promise of forgiveness and

new life. Hopkins later anointed him with holy oil.

The poet implores God to forgive any sin the farrier must have

committed.

In the FIRST TERSINE of the sestet the poet states that looking after the

sick can endear a priest in two ways –

he may receive affectionate gratitude from those he tends;

and, secondly, knowing that he is doing something worthwhile might

make him less discontented with himself.

The comfort that the priest gave is perhaps the knowledge of God’s love,

and his touch is perhaps the giving of a blessing.

Poor Felix, who is addressed as a child, is childlike in his helplessness,

and also a child of God in the eyes of the priest.

The SECOND TERSINE, is a summary of his life squeezed into 3 little

sentences.

The words “boisterous” and “grim” bring back the harshness, the

seriousness and the boldness of the first quatrain.

Also the word “fettle” brings back the concept of the “man of mould”.

The priest contrasts the last feeble days of the farrier with his earlier years,

before death or sickness were ever forethought of.

He was then strong “big-boned and hardy-handsome,” and had an

abundance of energy.

His personality harmonised with his smithy – the forge built of random or

rough stone, the powerful men, the big horses.

A notable feature of this sonnet is the shift in tone. The opening line

comes across as matter-of-fact, whereas the sestet provides a stark

contrast as the raw feelings of the speaker become clear. The tone

changes to one of loss and grief.

Hopkins uses his structure to establish some distinct contrasts. He shows

us the strapping healthy Randal who once was ‘powerful amidst peers’

(line 13) and we can then draw the contrast with the ‘pining, pining’ (line 3)

man who was broken by ‘some/Fatal four disorders’ (lines 3-4).

A contrast is also provided by describing the spiritual state of Randal who

acquires a ‘heavenlier heart’ (line 6) after time spent with the speaker. This

time spent together also causes the development of their relationship from

perhaps one of mutual tolerance to a close one where each genuinely

cared for the other.

Hopkins’ use of compound adjectives like ‘hardy-handsome’ (line 2) gives

his poem a liveliness and freshness.

The diction of the last stanza lends power to the content, as the reader

can visualise Felix Randal ‘at the random grim forge’ (line 13) performing

impressive physical feats.

This poem demands to be read aloud.

The rhythm of pauses and flow is made clear by the punctuation and word

order.

In the first line, three points are made, separated by the commas and the

question mark.

The use of alliteration in ‘hardy-handsome’ (line 2), ‘reason rambled’ (line 3)

and ‘Fatal four’ (line 4) not only increases the impact of the words due to

their sound, but also due to the linking of these words.

The final two lines of the poem create a strong rhythm as the short phrases

‘random grim forge’, ‘powerful amidst peers’ (line 13), ‘great grey

drayhorse’ and ‘bright and battering sandal’ (line 14) balance each other

and cumulatively build the image of strength.

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?

Blacksmith whose main job is the shoeing of horses. A very physically demanding career.

The priest’s work with the man is ended because of the man’s death.

He has been present and watching how the sickness has changed the dead man.

Size or shape

Large, powerful and good-looking in a rugged way

Wasting away, but could also mean yearning for a time that is past

This could be an reference to the four humours which were believed to have ruled the body: blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm.

He was so ill that he became delirious, or there is no reason for this disease

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 once powerful man is no longer functioning and has been “broken” by this illness.

He could not come to terms with being ill and was very frustrated in the way that the illness was impacting on his life because he had never been seriously ill before.

Having received Eucharist, known as "Viaticum". The sacrament to dying.

He began to accept his mortality and started making preparations to meet his maker a while before his death.

The priest had given him all that was necessary to help his soul return to heaven. Reprieve = escape from hell. Ransom = taking advantage of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

God look after his soul.

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;

Seeing the sick and coming in constant contact with them helps us to feel compassion towards them and at times a love. But this is not all, in this process we become better people and we are “endeared” towards God and those around us. We become more “loved” by those around us.

He has given the dying man the comfort and solace through the words he has spoken.

His physical comforting has helped stop the man’s tears.

Not only has he given comfort but through the process his heart has been “touched”.

Look how the language has changed the perspective. The powerful farrier is now almost child-like in his dependence to those who are taking care of him.

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 dray horse his bright and battering sandal!

The man that he seeing is nothing like the man who was young and strong and happy.

When he was healthy he was working at the forge, which was a hot and like hell in many ways. In this environment he was the strongest amongst all these strong men.

To organise and get ready for (archaic use). In this case he is making shoes to fit the horse.

A powerful horse that was used for carting heavy loads

The new iron shoes for the horse

1. Quote the phrase from the poem that tells us of the speaker’s belief

that Felix Randal’s soul had been saved.

Randal had not only been ‘anointed’ (line 6), which prepared his soul for

the afterlife but the speaker’s use of ‘ransom’ (line 7) tells us he believes

Randal was saved.

2. Relate the physical decline of Felix Randal.

From being a strapping ‘hardy-handsome’ (line 2) man ‘powerful amidst

peers’ (line 13), Felix Randal became physically weak ‘Pining, pining’ (line

3) as he succumbed to the illness that ‘broke him’ (line 5).

3. Discuss the connotations of the word ‘mould’ (line 2) and its application

in this context.

The word ‘mould’ means shape or recognisable form. In this instance, it is

used to denote a physical ‘type’ or physique: that of a large, strong man. The

word also has the connotation of influencing or guiding someone’s character.

This is also appropriate in the context of the poem, as the speaker, the priest,

converts his parishioner, Felix Randal, and moulds his ‘heavenlier heart’

(line 6).

4. Comment on the poet’s use of tone in the poem. Provide evidence

from the text to support your answer.

The poem begins with quite a detached, unaffected tone as the death of

Randal is commented on and the reaction is merely ‘my duty all ended’

(line 1). The octave relates the progression of Randal’s diminishing health

and his religious growth, but the speaker seems resigned and accepting of

the inevitability of the death. In contrast, the sestet reveals the loss and

pain of the speaker as the distressed tone conveys: ‘Thy tears that

touched my heart’ (line 11).

5. Ministering to the sick and dying forms an integral aspect of the

function of a priest. Given the clues provided in this poem, do you think

Hopkins was effective in this function? Motivate your answer.

Dealing with others’ pain and fears must be emotionally difficult, as the priest

needs to provide comfort and assistance while protecting his own emotional

state. While the speaker in this poem seems to be able to keep his emotions

in check in the octave, the raw grief expressed later in the poem tells us how

emotionally involved this priest became. Constant experiences of grief

frequently repeated must surely be emotionally destabilising, and might

ultimately lead to a personal breakdown. Thus, if the poem reflects Hopkins’

experience, he could be considered effective as a provider of comfort to the

dying, but possibly at significant personal cost.

6. Based on the information provided in the poem, describe Felix Randal

before he got sick.

Felix Randal was a well-built, lively young man with pleasant features. His

job as a farrier tells us that he was physically strong. The reference to his

being ‘powerful amidst peers’ (line 13) and his interaction with the biggest

breed of horse confirms this.

7. Refer to line 5: ‘Impatient he cursed at first, but mended’. In what way

was he ‘mended’ and how was this achieved?

In this context, ‘mended’ (line 5) refers to the ‘correction’ of his attitude.

From cursing and bewailing his fate and physical difficulty, he learns to accept

the situation and acquires patience and endurance, in the face of his

hardship. He has found religious faith and this gives him comfort and the

strength to cope with his troubles.

8. Discuss how the form of the poem enhances the impact of the content.

The Petrarchan sonnet form works well for this content.

Hopkins uses the octave to set up the situation. He tells us about Felix

Randal’s situation and the speaker’s role in ministering to the dying man.

The tone of the octave is mostly dispassionate and prepared to accept the

unpleasant fact of Randal’s death.

The sestet moves on to describe the mutual effect the two men had on each

other and there is an outpouring of emotion that contrasts with the octave.

The sestet is an expression of grief and sorrow, and the impact of Felix Randal’sdeath on the speaker is unmistakable.

9. There are two ‘characters’ in this poem: Felix Randal and the speaker.

Compare your emotive response to each. Give reasons to justify your

answer.

Felix Randal’s troubles are well described and reader probably feels some pity

for the strapping young man who succumbs to illness and dies. The

description of his cursing, tears and confused rambling evokes an emotional

response from the reader.

The speaker, on the other hand, is more complex. Initially, the speaker comes

across as coldly matter-of-fact, more interested in whether his duty is done

than in the death of Randal. He appears a little self-satisfied at his successful

religious instruction of his pupil.

However, the despair and grief that he allows us to see in the sestet, arouses

a far more sympathetic response. He allows his vulnerability to be exposed

and his pain engages the reader.

1. What is being discussed in the octet? (2)

2. What is being discussed in the sestet? How does this differ from the octet? (4)

3. Discuss the relationship between these two men. Refer closely to the text to substantiate your answer. (4)

4. Discuss the tone of the poem. (3)

5. What is meant in line 9? (2)

6. What is the poet saying at the end of line 11? (3)

7. How does the poet contrast the “two Felix’s” in the last 3 lines of the sonnet? (4)