Word class changes without affixation - functional conversion
Task B - ‘The Windhover’ Gerard Manley Hopkins
In his poem 'The Windhover' Gerard Manley Hopkins
describes with admiration the extraordinary abilities of the bird in flight.
Why is the use of the word 'achieve' so striking in line 8 of the extract
below and what effects does it have?
 We
also have an audio version of the
poem.
(note: there is a slight error in the audio version
line 4, the written version is correct)
To Christ our Lord
I caught this morning morning's minion, king-
dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird, - the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!
(Gerard Manley Hopkins, 'The Windhover')
Here Hopkins takes the verb achieve and uses it as a noun, in
spite of the fact that English already has a noun, 'achievement' derived
from that verb. It is obvious that the word is a noun here because of
(i) the preceding definite article, (ii) the 'of' apparently beginning
a post-modifying prepositional phrase, and (iii) the grammatical parallel
with 'mastery'. Why does Hopkins bother to make up a new noun when the
language has already provided one for him? He is describing the flight
of the windhover in all its miraculous splendour. By using the word
'achieve' as a noun instead of a verb he foregrounds the extent of the
achievement of the bird in flight and also increases the sense of physical
energy which we associate with the windhover.
So far, we have looked at word class changes in small examples. You
are now ready to explore such usages, and their effects in whole poems.
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