"Felix Randal" is a poem written by British poet Gerard Manley Hopkins in 1880, first published posthumously in 1918. Partly inspired by Hopkin’s own experience as a Jesuit priest, the poem shows a priest (thought to be Hopkins himself) contemplating the death of Felix Randal, a young man with whom he had bonded and for whom he mourns. The poem explores the concept of solace through death, as well as the need for acceptance and guidance in the final moments of life. Felix was angry at God for his untimely death, yet, through the priest’s guidance, he found comfort with the knowledge that God would save him after death.
This poem is a Petrarchan sonnet and uses the rhyme scheme ABBAABBA for the first half but switches to a CCDCCD scheme in the second half of the poem. Hopkins uses rhetorical questions to make the reader ponder their own response to death. Felix Randal is thought to have been inspired by the farrier Felix Spencer, who died from pulmonary tuberculosis, and for whom Hopkins performed the last rites.
