The Windhover

The Windhover is filled with symbolism and is relatively modern in its style, so the organization of the stanzas, meter and rhyme is not very prominent. Still, we get a good picture of what the author, Gerard Manley Hopkins, means because he  uses an array of literary tools like alliteration to make the poem sound a certain way, exciting the tone and writing casually but devotedly .

Even though a ton of different things happen in the first stanza compared the the rest of the poem, we do not feel rushed at the beginning. This is because Hopkins uses a prolific amount of alliteration and assonance  to slow us down (since it's harder for us to repeat sounds quickly) so that the tension and speed of the poem can then rise later on. Both tools can also act as a small method of controlling the reader's emotions. The repetition of the same sounds builds excitement. Also, it cannot be capitalized on too much because his writing doesn't yet project the excitement he shows soon after.

Hopkins also applies a literary term that he invented (well, technically the tool was used before but he did coin the name), the sprung rhythm. The sprung rhythm is kind of complicated, but in essence it causes the poem to follow "feet" as opposed to metrics.  This basically means that it allows the poem to sound more like English, therefore giving it a more natural and flowing feeling.

Finally, Hopkins also uses punctuation and tone to great effect. He puts three exclamation points into the short poem and each time they allow the poem to reach a higher emotional conclusion by exciting the tone being used at the time. Similarly, he completely capitalizes the "AND" after "buckle!" which really helps the imagery of the situation.  The reader can imagine the protagonist's excitement vividly; Hopkins makes it seem like he is dictating to you personally by the emotion he puts in with those two tools.