Felix Randal (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Gerard Manley Hopkins
- First Published: 1918
- Type of Work: Sonnet
- Genres: Poetry, Sonnet
- Subjects: Nineteenth century, England or English people, Death or dying, Catholics or Catholic Church, Diseases, Tuberculosis, Horses, Priests, Blacksmithing or blacksmiths
The Poem
“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...
[The entire page is 1409 words long]
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