Stormcock in Elder vs The Caged Skylark

 After reading “Stormcock in Elder”, we were assigned to make a comparison between this poem and another one that we had read during the year, with my partner Benjamin Morer, we chose the poem “The Caged Skylark”. I hope you like it!

“Stormcock in Elder” can be compared to “The Caged Skylark”, as both of them are related to birds, they are connected to religion, and they talk about the connection of humans to nature and they are full of imagery.

To start with, both of them have a religious background. In the case of “The Caged Skylark”, the first part of the poem shows a comparison between the skylark and the human soul in which humans finds themselves trapped in their own bodies and the skylark who could be flying up in the sky is now caged and isn't allowed to do any of this. This Hopkin poem is a clear representation of how he found himself connected with nature (specifically birds). Perhaps, he found the freedom he couldn't have through these birds, as Gerard lived in a constant dilemma between his religion and his passion for writing. In the case of “Stormcock in Elder”, the speaker gives a detailed description of the magnificence of the Stormock seeing it as an evidence of God's creation (“singing glorified”). In addition, the speaker compares the stormcock to the angel Gabriel (“As bright as Gabriel to smile”), suggesting that the bird, like the angel, serves as a spiritual messenger.

Secondly, the two poems are similar in the way they show the human connection to nature. In the case of “The Caged Skylark”, nature is the home of a lot of creatures, such as the skylark and humans; but in the poem this is contrasted with the drudgery and the barriers of human society, this is why the skylark is captured in a cage (an object made by humans); by this action the writer shows how humans get against nature, affecting it. In the case of “Stormcock in Elder”, the speaker sees the stormcock as an inspiration, since the bird is always optimistic and it portrays splendor for anyone who sees it. Moreover, the speaker in his analysis learns new things from it, changing his view to a more optimistic one.

 Finally, as we said before the two poems are full of imagery about the birds. In the case of “The Caged Skylark”, begins with a visual image (“dare-gale”), which symbolizes the freedom and energy of the skylark in the past, compared with his actual situation using the visual image of (“dull cage”). In the second stanza, the author says (“wringing their barriers in bursts of fear or rage”) referring to the soul of the skylark and the human, which are trying to escape (the human soul from his body and the skylark from his cage). In the 4 stanza and last one, there is a visual image created by the word (“footing”), which conveys the dark atmosphere of the poem to one of joy. In the case of “Stormcock in Elder”, the poem also starts with a visual image (“dark hermitage”), this image portrays a dark atmosphere in which the speaker is in his hermitage (a place where a religious person lives on their own). In the 2 stanza, the author focuses on the stormcock, and he uses an auditory image to portray his beautiful chants (“singing glorified”). Similarly to “The Caged Skylark”, these poems change from a dark atmosphere to one more optimistic caused by the Stormock and his magnificence. This is show in the third stanza where the author describes the throat, breast, break and tongue of the bird us  through imagery (“The throbbing throat that made the cry, The breast dewed from the misty air, The polished bill that opened wide And showed the pointed tongue inside”), clearly this is opposed to the setting of the poem, as the description that the author gives is something marvelous.