The Windhover
The star of the poem, if not the main character, is the kestrel whose flight inspires the speaker to compose it. We’re told virtually nothing about its physical characteristics; instead, the bird’s actions, the way it flies and navigates the winds, are what hold the speaker’s attention. The “nickname” windhover stems from this particular bird’s tendency to “hover” in the air while searching the ground for prey.
The Speaker
We learn very little in terms of concrete details about our first-person poetic speaker-narrator in “The Windhover”: he’s a man of faith; he’s just experienced a period of isolation, depression, or some other feeling of withdrawal/detachment from the world (“my heart in hiding”); and that this feeling is alleviated by the sight of the falcon’s flight. In place of information about the speaker, what Hopkins gives us is a chance to see through this speaker’s eyes, to encounter the world as he does. This leads to a sense of identification with the speaker not through sympathy or empathy, but on the basis of shared experience.
