ABSTRACT
Hopkins served as a parish priest at St Francis Xavier's, Liverpool, a slum parish, from the end of December 1879 until early August 1881, nearly twenty months: his longest assignment to such work. He wrote three poems there, all in 1880: Felix Randal on 28 April, Brothers in August and Spring and Fall on 7 September. There are clearly some affinities between Felix Randal and Henry Purcell. Both explore through an individual a distinctive quality that Hopkins cherishes in all men. Felix Randal ends with a memory of 'the great grey drayhorse' that, in its sound and splendid visual presence, to some extent matches the 'some great stormfowl' of Henry Purcell. The first three lines of the sestet, with their change to direct address of Felix, and their repetition of 'endears', 'touch', and 'tears', show how the consolation of the sonnet goes both ways: to Felix and to Hopkins himself.
