G. M. Hopkins

To this point, I believe that I've fulfilled all of my "Coming Attractions" obligations except the one about the name explanation (and the croquette thing, which was written facetiously). I'm going to separate this into a long and a short version.

***Short Version***

I took the name from the first line of a poem by my favorite poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889, so he's not a medieval).

***Long Version***

I took the name from the first line of this poem:

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name.
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells,
Selves--goes itself; myself it speaks and spells.
Crying What I do is me; for that I came.

But I say more: the just man justices,
Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is--
Christ--for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men's faces.

Beautiful, no?

I tend to get long-winded on Hopkins. That's why I wrote the short version above. The main idea behind the sonnet is that each being has an essential nature and acts according to that nature. In some definitive characteristics of this nature, a being assert his existence and uniqueness to observers. The kingfisher, being the most colourful of birds in Hopkin's native England, goes about in that bright array of colors and not in dull ones. The speaker of the poem refers to this state of being colorful and moving around as a colorful being as "catch[ing] fire." Dragonflies and their metalling exoskeletons "draw flame" or reflect the light that hits them during flight. The distinct appearance of these two creatures serve to announce the existence of these creatures to all with vision. Along the same lines, the sounds of the rock falling down the well, the plucked string, and the ringing bell are unique to each of these things in their states of motion. Hearers immediately recognize the objects in such situations through the sounds that they make. They announce that they exist in all this, or, as the speaker of the poem says, they cry "What I do is me."

At line 9 the sonnet turns (in agreement with the sonnet tradition). The speaker looks at the nature of man (particularly Christian man) and finds that it announces something else than just its own being. The Christian man's actions (specifically justice and grace) annouce God's presence in him made possible by the redemptive work of Christ and His presence in our lives. The speaker notes this presence or influence when he says "Christ plays in ten thousand places," places which turn out to be men. This presence in man "keeps all his goings graces" where the kingfisher's color might be said to keep all his goings fires. The poem closes with the image of the Son (through His presence in our natures) directing each Christian's eyes upward to God the Father.

I hope this doesn't seem like utter nonsense to those who know Hopkins (or especially to those who don't). I'll welcome any questions about confusions. I put this together rather hastily. In the future, I'll try to keep any obscure and perhaps uninteresting bits like this to myself and stick to things with broader appeal. I just wanted to clarify the blog name and allowed myself to get carried away.