An Epiphany in Stereo Hopkins and Eliot **Revised**

I know I said I would stop however I was rereading my blog post and decided to add a few things. For ease of reference, anything new is in blue.

I did some googling on Gerard Manley Hopkins and his terms "inscape" and "instress." Hopkins coined "inscape" as a word to describe the "thingness" of a thing. "Inscape" is what makes every object unique. "Inscape" is the design, it is what makes every object fit in the gigantic cosmic puzzle just right. Hopkins was a religious man and he saw this design as an extremely purposeful act of God. The "inscape" of something is the divine approval of existence, it is the mark of creation. The theory is related to the logocentric theory of creation. That is the world created through the "Word" of God. Creation from speech. All things came into existence from sounds coming out of the Gods mouth and thus "inscape" or self or identity was created from intonations as varied and unique as the things themselves.

Because humans have the best understanding of self, we can decipher "inscape." This process of discovering "inscape" in a thing is called "instress." "Instress" is the power to hear the Word of God within something's "inscape." Enlightenment comes from understanding the "instress" of the "Inscape." It is Hopkins' version of epiphany.

In his poem The Wreck of the Deutschland Hopkins addresses "instress" The poem is about the shipwreck of the SS Deutschland. Five of the passengers killed were Franciscan Nuns exiled due to the Falk Laws. Short WIKI here

Glow, glory in thunder;
Kiss my hand to the dappled-with-damson west:
Since, tho’ he is under the world’s splendour and wonder,
His mystery must be instressed, stressed;
For I greet him the days I meet him, and bless when I understand.

Hopkins' "inscape" reminds me of the "echoes" from Burnt Norton because they both use sound in trying to convey an epiphany. For both "inscape" and "echoes" the epiphany comes when the sound is interpreted properly. The sound must be intensified or attuned to stimulate deaf ears (perhaps distracted from distraction by distraction ears?). I think back to our discussion about an epiphany through music. I also think of the connotation of the title "Four Quartets," also based in sound and music. I think both of these writers, Eliot and Hopkins, are trying to tell us that epiphany ultimately comes from some kind of sound or wavelength rather than a vision, or a taste, or a smell. An epiphany is a chord that resonates through our minds, our hearts, our souls, and our guts. I think that's why I felt the goose bumps running down my back on the Mountain in Europe, my epiphany was using my spine as a keyboard. I also think that is why the dark epiphanies are so painful, as in Little Gidding "And last, the rendering pain of re-enactment, Of all you have done, and been; the shame." Also like the little dark epiphany (well maybe just little realization or little feeling) Taylor had with Pater that caused her to get "sick feeling in her stomach." The dissonant chords played by a dark epiphany nearly tear you apart.

The idea of music/sound and the epiphany may also lend a clue to Eliot's "dance". Professor Sexson said "Eliot doesn't seem like much of a dancer." I disagree. I think Eliot loves to dance but only to the right kind of music, the kind "restored by the refining fire, where you must move in measure." The kind of music that exists only in the "still point." I would imagine Eliot would dance to these lines from Hopkins' "Deutscheland"

Till a lioness arose breasting the babble, (sounds a lot like the Lotus in BN)	135
A prophetess towered in the tumult, a virginal tongue told.
18 Ah, touched in your bower of bone
Are you! turned for an exquisite smart,
Have you! make words break from me here all alone,
Do you!—mother of being in me, heart.	140
O unteachably after evil, but uttering truth,
Why, tears! is it? tears; such a melting, a madrigal start!
Never-eldering revel and river of youth,
What can it be, this glee? the good you have there of your own?
19 Sister, a sister calling	145
A master, her master and mine!—
And the inboard seas run swirling and hawling;
The rash smart sloggering brine
Blinds her; but she that weather sees one thing, one;
Has one fetch in her: she rears herself to divine	150
Ears, and the call of the tall nun
To the men in the tops and the tackle rode over the storm’s brawling.

The epiphany in "Deutscheland:" the cries (of mercy? or prayers asking God forgiveness asking kindly for salvation?) of a Franciscan Nun, a virgin, near drowned in the storm, piercing through the crashing of the waves and the foam of the sea, intent on hearing with "divine ears" (I think this phrase "divine ears" has two meanings. First she is calling upon God's "divine ears." Second she is she is opening her own "divine ears" as opposed to "distracted ears" [Eliot]) the voice of God. It is her devotion to God and his Word that shine like a beacon of light

Ah! there was a heart right!	225
There was single eye!
Read the unshapeable shock night
And knew the who and the why;
Wording it how but by him that present and past,
Heaven and earth are word of, worded by?—	230
The Simon Peter of a soul! to the blast
Tarpeian-fast, but a blown beacon of light.

Of course in true Hopkins' fashion the Nun dies anyway in the wreck causing one to question God because he has forsaken her and her devotion like Simon Peter or a traitor on Tarpeian Rock. But its all part of the Epiphany though sometimes dark and confusing. BUT...

Loathed for a love men knew in them,
Banned by the land of their birth,
Rhine refused them. Thames would ruin them;
Surf, snow, river and earth
Gnashed: but thou art above, thou Orion of light;	165
Thy unchancelling poising palms were weighing the worth,
Thou martyr-master: in thy sight
Storm flakes were scroll-leaved flowers, lily showers—sweet heaven was astrew in them.
22 Five! the finding and sake
And cipher of suffering Christ.	170
Mark, the mark is of man’s make
And the word of it Sacrificed.
But he scores it in scarlet himself on his own bespoken,
Before-time-taken, dearest prizèd and priced—
Stigma, signal, cinquefoil token	175
For lettering of the lamb’s fleece, ruddying of the rose-flake.

Hello St. John of the Cross! The nuns must suffer to reach salvation they must experience "the dark night of the soul". They must endure the tumultuous waters and ultimately, drown, as a gift to the "martyr-master" (God I think). But God grants them peace and a happy ending (at least thats how I interpret it) as "sweet heaven was astrew in them (the nuns that is)." This is where I think the poem gets real interesting, what they must endure is likened to the suffering of Christ and what they must endure, a "Mark, the mark is of man's make." It seems to me that the suffering endured by the Nuns during the shipwreck or better yet, "the dark night of the soul," is mans creation (probably the only one in Hopkins' view), it is a self inflicted wound most likely originating from Bible World History Episode 1...The Apple. More interestingly, though man created his own suffering, man doesn't have the power to create the "thingness" of the suffering. That is up to God he must instill the "inscape" of the suffering, he must breath "the word of it Sacrificed." Which means we have the power to discover the "instress" of the "inscape" of our own creation... suffering. Wow... my head hurts.

From what we have read in Eliot, I think it is safe to say he would agree with Hopkins' view of epiphany. God made the epiphany, it was his gift to man but the dark epiphany (i.e. suffering and sacrifice) was man's own creation and man doomed himself to a hell of a lot more dark epiphanies than light ones. I think he would also agree that a real good epiphany (the ultimate AWE!!!) comes from the "instress" of suffering (or dark epiphany). Though I would imagine Eliot would use a bit of different wording "The only hope, or else dispair, Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre-- To be redeemed from fire by fire"

Anyway back to the original intention of this blog post, it is sound and word that creates the Epiphany in "Deutscheland." (it is also the sound of the word that brings man's ultimate creation the dark epiphany into existance) Though not music specifically, the intonations that reach the "men in the tops and the tackle" cause the Awe! moment (a little side note...I find it very interesting that the most commonly associated term with epiphany isn't a term at all. Rather it is a sound "Awe" or "Ah-hah"). The more I think about sound and Epiphany the deeper I think the possibility may go. A bugle gives the Cavalry the courage to charge. A battle cry gives soldiers the courage to fight. The national anthem brings some people to tears. Or maybe even, to steal a bit from Proust, a couple notes on a pipe organ followed by "take me out to the ball game" brings you back to the summer when you were nine, eating hot dogs and crunching peanuts in the bleacher seats at the local minor league ballpark. Try it for yourself.

But anyway I'll stop there.

This time for real.