The Windhover

The Poem from
Victoria's Secret

After Fraser was shot by Ray in the closing sequences of "Victoria's Secret, part 2" and lay bleeding on the railway platform, he began reciting the following poem. A poem that is probably the same one that Victoria was reciting as she and Benton were trapped on the side of the mountain years earlier.

The Windhover:
To Christ Our Lord

I CAUGHT this morning morning's minion, king- dom 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: shéer plód makes plough down sillion Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear, Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.
- Gerard Manley Hopkins (1845-1889) Composed in 1877, Published in 1918

I CAUGHT this morning morning's minion, king-
    dom 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: shéer plód makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.

- Gerard Manley Hopkins (1845-1889)
Composed in 1877, Published in 1918

For more information on the poet who wrote The Windhover, please visit the Gerard Manley Hopkins Resource Page.

Having trouble trying to figure out what the poet is saying? Follow this link for an interlinear translation of the poem.

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Layout copyright 1999 by William Rydbom and Elyse Dickenson.
Poetry by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1918).