In this season, we’ve talked about the beauty of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ work, but he is also known for poems that plumb the depths of the human experience as well as its heights. Hopkins suffered from several chronic maladies, and there is a darker streak that runs through many of his poems, especially in those written toward the end of his short life when his own suffering and misery had reached a crescendo.

"The Caged Skylark" is one of these darker poems. It is a poem about the cage of the frailties and foibles of the human body and about the resurrection and new creation for which Hopkins longed.

Music from this episode was from EVOE, Beneath The Mountain, Okaya, Yehezkel Raz, Ardie Son, and Christopher Galovan. Sound design and editing is by Nate Sheppard.

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