Binsey Poplars

What if you could write a poem that would save a forest? Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote the poem “Binsey Poplars” about his despair over the chopped-down poplar trees that once lined his walks along the River Thames in the English village of Binsey. “Binsey Poplars” was published in 1918, nearly 30 years after Hopkins’s death, but in that same year, the poplars in Binsey he wrote were replanted! Unfortunately, the trees were chopped down again in 2004, but Hopkins’s uniquely heartfelt poem helped raise funds for them to be replanted. Gerard Manley Hopkins’s abundant use of rhyme and alliteration in this lyric poem deeply plants a seed of sorrow for the demolition of delicate beauty.

Fig. 1 - Aspen Poplar trees.

“Binsey Poplars” Background Information

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889), the English poet and Jesuit priest, wrote “Binsey Poplars” in 1879 after visiting a small English town along the Thames River called Binsey. Binsey is just northwest of Oxford, where Hopkins studied at university. After over a decade, Hopkins moved back to Oxford to serve as a parish priest at St. Aloysius Church. Upon his return to the area, Hopkins noticed that the rows of poplar trees along the river he had loved had been chopped down. This poem reflects Hopkins’s sadness and dismay at people’s disregard for nature and laments the “felling,” or falling, of the beautiful trees.

Gerard Manley Hopkins’s poetry was greatly inspired by nature. He viewed nature as a reflection of God’s power and perfection. “Binsey Poplars” reflects Hopkins’s deep love for nature, sound, and musicality. Hopkins’s poetry is often characterized by its unique rhythm, rhyme, language, alliteration, assonance, repetition, imagery, and themes about God and nature.

“Binsey Poplars” Summary

“Binsey Poplars” is written almost like an elegy or an expression of grief for the dead. Gerard Manley Hopkins dedicated the poem with “felled 1879” to address the chopped-down trees. He begins the poem with the term of endearment, “My aspens dear,” to set the tone of a personalized lament, personifying the trees as if they are a deceased loved one.

The poem’s image of the stark trees lying in lines on the ground like dead bodies is contrasted with the pleasant summery scene of trees moving in the breeze, forming playful shadows on the river bank. Hopkins writes that not a single tree “that dandled a sandalled / Shadow that swam or sank / On meadow & river & wind-wandering weed-winding bank” was spared (6–8). The imagery of a person’s foot forming a shadow as they bounce their sandaled foot up and down creates an idea of delicacy. It further personifies the way the trees move to form delicate shadows that appear on the water. The length of the last line in the stanza suggests that it was a very long, seemingly endless row of trees that were “felled” along the river.

Fig. 2 - A tree’s shadow in the river.

The second stanza of the poem shifts from the speaker’s lament to a reflection on humanity’s disregard for nature. The opening lines of the stanza, “O if we but knew what we do / When we delve or hew,” echo the words of Jesus Christ as he was on the cross (9–0). In Luke chapter 23, verse two of the Bible, Jesus says, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do,” as he looks down from the cross at the distressing scene of soldiers gambling for his garments. Through this biblical allusion, Hopkins points to the fact that people are unaware of the gravity of their actions in killing something so precious and powerful.

Hopkins uses personification to suggest the trees are like a thin, delicate woman, “Since country is so tender / To touch her being so slender” (12–13). Giving nature a feminine body makes the “hacking” and “hewing” seem all the more atrocious. Hopkins further emphasizes the horror of this destruction by describing messing with nature as the unsettling prick of an eyeball. He carries this idea of a needle into the phrase “Even where we mean / To mend her we end her” to show how delicate nature is and how quickly humans can destroy it (16–17).

The poem builds on the frightening ease of human destruction with the lines, “After-comers cannot guess the beauty been. / Ten or twelve, only ten or twelve / Strokes of havoc unselve / The sweet especial scene” (19–22). The poet says that “after-comers,” or now people visiting where the Binsey poplars once were, will never know their beauty because in a few chops, they were “felled.” Hopkins uses the phrase “sweet especial scene” to emphasize nature’s innocence and preciousness and to reflect his nostalgia for the trees as he drifts out of the poem with the recollecting repetition “Rural scene, a rural scene, / Sweet especial rural scene” (23–24). The poem leaves readers with a “sweet” and pleasant “rural scene” in mind to remind readers of nature’s beauty and innocence.

“Binsey Poplars” Full Poem

“Binsey Poplars” Analysis

Let’s look at the form of the poem, its themes, and its literary devices.

“Binsey Poplars” Analysis of Form

What type of poem is “Binsey Poplars?”

“Binsey Poplars” is a lyric poem split into two stanzas: one eight-line stanza and one 16-line stanza. Gerard Manley Hopkins uses this first-person, rhythmic, short-form poem to allow readers to feel how deeply he was affected by the poplars being chopped down.

“Binsey Poplars” Rhyme Scheme

The rhyme scheme of the first stanza of the poem is ABACBACC. The rhymes help establish a flowing continuity that mimics the “river & wind-wandering” bank. Though the lines of the poem have significantly different lengths, the end rhymes create harmony and stability.

The second stanza is double the length of the first, and its rhyme scheme is irregular. However, it uses many rhyming couplets which tie together certain phrases in a unified thought or picture.

The entire poem consists of only three periods, so Gerard Manley Hopkins uses rhyming couplets to help bind images within a long trail of words. While the lines in the example are all part of an extended simile, each couplet represents a distinct image. The rhymes “tender” and “slender” paint a picture of the tree as a thin, delicate woman, while the rhymes “ball” and “all” create the image of an eyeball being pricked with a needle. Both images appeal to the reader’s sense of touch in contrasting ways: the first in a positive, pleasant way and the second in a negative, almost repulsive manner. Hopkins uses this contrast to explain that the trees are so delicate that even harming them slightly would be a cruel and barbaric act.

“Binsey Poplars” Meter

The meter of the poem is Hopkins’s characteristic sprung rhythm. Hopkins uses this flexible form of meter to mimic a more natural form of speech. It allows him to create lines of varying lengths and emphasize consecutive syllables, which is crucial to “Binsey Poplars.”

While iambic and trochaic rhythms have a steady, bouncy sound due to the regular alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables, sprung rhythm allows Gerard Manley Hopkins to use elements of different forms of meter to achieve a more natural, fluid sound.

“Binsey Poplars” Themes

Below are the themes of the poem. Can you think of others?

Man and Nature

The themes of “Binsey Poplars” surround the relationship between man and nature. On one level, there is the poet’s personal relationship with nature, and on another level, there is humanity’s uncaring disposition towards nature.

The relationship between the speaker and nature is one of great admiration and reverence for its beauty. Gerard Manley Hopkins vividly personifies the poplars as a woman. This is seen in his elegy-like address to the poplars, his use of the pronoun “her” to describe them, and his description of the trees being “slender” and” tender” to touch. The poet uses this personification to emphasize how precious, valuable, and delicate nature is. He wants us to feel its pain and protect it.

The poet then expresses how upset he is with humanity for being so cruel and uncaring towards these trees that have been chopped down. He uses forceful words such as “quelled,” “hack,” “hew,” and “wrack” to describe the chopping down of trees as a violent form of torture. Hopkins proposes that man is a danger to nature because people can chop down a tree in a few strokes so nonchalantly. This poem calls for sympathy, appreciation, and preservation of nature, which the speaker feels is lacking among people.

“Binsey Poplars” Literary Devices

Let us take a look at the literary devices.

Alliteration

Gerard Manley Hopkins’s poetry is famous for its frequent use of alliteration or the repetition of letters or sounds at the beginning of words in a phrase. The alliteration carries the reader through the phrase and helps establish Hopkins’s sprung rhythm, as the stresses are inclined to fall on the “f” sounds.

Repetition

Hopkins also uses repetition in “Binsey Poplars” to emphasize his message and create a dramatic effect. In this example, the repetition of the word “felled” suggests that many trees were cut down one after another, and it mimics the repetitive sound of an ax as it chops wood.

Enjambment

Hopkins uses very few periods in his poetry. He frequently uses enjambment as one phrase of poetry flows into the next. In “Binsey Poplars,” the enjambment creates a flowing or winding effect that mimics the winding river bank that is seemingly endless. The poet suggests the length of the winding river bank through the long line describing it, which stands out from the rest. Emphasizing the length of the riverbank helps the reader understand that there were a seemingly endless number of trees cut down.