ABSTRACT
In Hopkins's poetry, what is at stake is not merely a visual and poetic vocabulary of the heart, but a deeply inscribed imagining of a personal union with the divine, achieved in and by the spirit. The 'mastery of the thing' is that fullest action of the mind described by Hopkins in his spiritual notes. As we have noted, the words 'ah the author's dear' are generally interpreted as an allusion to Herbert's familiar reference to Christ in 'Love'. Hopkins similarly describes the inspiration of God's spirit as the beginning of the soul's future perfection. The final two stanzas of 'Ribblesdale' contain a number of words that emphasise the idea; 'heir', 'rich', 'bid', 'thrift', 'reave' and of course 'dear' may all be connected with the idea of cost. Nearly each word in this section of the poem is connected with the operation of the spirit: (re)sign, sign, seal, motion, breath, sighs.
