The Windhover The Windhover "The Windhover" is a sonnet by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889). It was written on May 30, 1877, but not published until 1918, when it was included as part of the collection "Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins". Hopkins dedicated the poem "to Christ our Lord". "Windhover" is another name for the common kestrel ("Falco tinnunculus"). The name refers to the bird's ability to hover in midair while hunting prey. In the poem, the narrator admires the bird as it hovers in the air, suggesting that it controls the wind as a man may control a horse. The bird then
Bird vocalization who is to be their king. In English poetry, John Keats's 1819 "Ode to a Nightingale" and Percy Bysshe Shelley's 1820 "To a Skylark" are popular classics. Ted Hughes's 1970 collection of poems about a bird character, "Crow", is considered one of his most important works. Bird poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins include "Sea and Skylark" and "The Windhover". Bird vocalization Bird vocalization includes both bird calls and bird songs. In non-technical use, bird songs are the bird sounds that are melodious to the human ear. In ornithology and birding, songs (relatively complex vocalizations) are distinguished by function from calls