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Summary English Home Language - Felix Randal
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Sufficient summary and explanation of the critical poem called Felix Randal in the grade 12 curriculum.
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Felix Randal” is a sonnet with an Italian or Petrarchan rhyme scheme(abba, abba, ccd, ccd); although not published until 1918, 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 in a
slum parish in Liverpool, visited him often, administered the last
sacraments, and officiated at his funeral.
Hence 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.
His reflections begin with an objective recollection of the facts of the sad
case, but after the apparently laconic generalization of line 9, the poem
breaks into a gripping personal cry of loss. Then the poem offers a lovely
image of the dead friend enjoying the prime of his short life.
The first four lines react to the news that the blacksmith has died. Lines 2
to 9 are interior monologue, spoken by the speaker to himself. The
speaker realizes that Felix Randal’s death means the end of dutiful
visiting, the end of watching the man’s decline from outstanding vigour
into bodily debility and periods of insanity as four ailments (tuberculosis
and three attendant...
(The entire section is 440 words.)
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Hopkins was born in 1844 to a middle class family. He was converted to
Roman Catholicism under the influence of Great Cardinal Newman. Later
on he became a Professor of Classics at the University College, Dublin. He
was one of the greatest of the English poets. The poetry of Hopkins might
be called 'passionate science'. Like other poets and painters of his era this
poet and priest delighted in the observation of nature. His principal
ancestors are the religious metaphysical poets of the 17th century,
particularly George Herbert whom Hopkins much admitted. Hopkins can
scarcely be considered a Victorian as he was ignored in his time. His
talent was so highly original that one cannot characterize it as Victorian;
in fact, his use of language is modernistic. In most of his poems it is
clearly evident a sensory vividness and keenness in intelligence.
Furthermore, most of Hopkins’ poems are highly individualistic poetry and
particular to himself and he is a unique in much of his subject matter. he
has often been praise for his closeness to the speaking voice, for his
ability to convey the rhymes and intonations of English. He has lengthen
the line to a basic six feet instead of five, to give himself more room for
sweeping alliterative tone which he himself called as 'sprung rhythm.'
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