Journal: May 18, 1870

In the journal entry for May 18, 1870 (pp. 1525-6), Hopkins uses the terms "instress" and "inscape." How does his use of them here help you to understand what the editors tell us about these concepts? How does it help you to see what he attempts to do in his poetry?

In the introduction, the editors give us some information on “instress” and “inscape” already. “Inscape” is “the distinctive design that constitutes individual identity” which seems to be to be the thing that defines a work, or a poem in this case particularly. It’s about the individual feeling of the poem. “Instress” is the “apprehension of an object in an intense thrust of energy toward it that enables one to realize its specific distinctiveness” which I think means the understanding of something, in this case a poem, in such a way that you fully understand its uniqueness. So it seems from this, we’re meant to get the instress of the inscape. One solves the other rather.
With this journal entry and Hopkins’ use of the word, I feel that “inscape” reminds me of “landscape.” “I do not think that I have ever seen anything a more beautiful than the bluebell I have been looking at. I know the beauty of our Lord by it. It[s inscape] is [mixed of] strength and grace, like an ash [tree].” It’s the image, the picture painted by the poem to the audience. Hopkins felt that understanding and seeing this, or instressing the inscape, would bring one closer to God. In his poetry, he wants others to share in what he sees and feels and that is why he puts these images, or this inscape, into his work.