Maggie's Farm

The Windhover

To Christ Our Lord

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 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!

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, ah my dear,
� Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermilion.

A Windhover is a Kestrel, the small, brightly-colored hovering�falcon which in the US is often called a Sparrow Hawk. Hopkins' Wiki entry here.