ABSTRACT
Hurrahing in Harvest was the outcome when Hopkins wrote to Bridges, 'of half an hour of extreme enthusiasm as he walked home alone one day from fishing in the Elwy'. Hurrahing in Harvest is dated 'Vale of Clwyd, in September 1877'. It is perhaps the most ecstatic of this group of celebratory poems. It celebrates a direct vision of Christ's physical presence in nature, and it does so in one of Hopkins's boldest and most original images. The whole poem, like The Windhover, is in 'sprung' rhythm, with many 'outriding' feet, that is syllables not counted in the scanning, the resultant sound is an intimate part of the sonnet's excitement. In the first four lines, Hopkins merges two of his favourite inscapes, the beauty of harvest and the beauty of the autumn clouds: 'barbarous' is peculiarly rich, bringing together the bearded corn and the wild beauty of the stooks; 'Meal-drift' identifies grain and cloud.
