The Rise and Fall of Meter

the stigma of meter 65

from “scoring the scarlet,” a metaphor linking metrical form to sacrifice and the
crucifixion.
The “róse-fláke” of Christ’s flesh also hearkens back to the poems Hopkins
was writing just before “The Wreck of the Deutschland.” The rose is connected
to the number five not only through the flake of Christ’s flesh but also through
the emblem of the Virgin Mary, the mystical rose. In “Rosa Mystica,” a poem
that Hopkins may have written in the early 1870s or as late as 1874 or 1875,
Hopkins specifically connects the number five with the wounds of Christ and
the Virgin Mary (ll. 31–42):

What was the colour of that Blossom bright?

White to begin with, immaculate white.

But what a wild flush on the flakes of it stood,

When the Rose ran in crimsonings down the Cross-wood.^48

In the Gardens of God, in the daylight divine 35

I shall worship the Wounds with thee, Mother of mine.

How many leaves had it? Five they were then,

Five like the senses, and members of men;

Five is the number by nature, but now

They multiply, multiply, who can tell how. 40

In the Gardens of God, in the daylight divine

Make me a leaf in thee, Mother of mine.^49

From the manuscript of this poem, Hopkins asks of the Rosa Mystica, “is it
more than a word”?
The “róse-fláke” of Christ’s flesh is more than a mere “ruddying” of the fig-
ure of Christ. In the word “flake” we can read deeper understanding of Hop-
kins’s philological joining of the word “flesh” with the word “cut.” The word
“flesh” cannot be separated from the mark, the stigmata of meter, above it.
Hopkins knew that “acute” meant “sharp” in Latin (acutus) as well as “in-
tense.”^50 In his early diaries he considers the words “flesh,” or “flake” and
“strike,” or “cut,” to be related.

Flick means to touch or strike lightly as with the end of a whip, a fin-

ger, etc. To fleck is the next tone above flick, still meaning to touch or

strike lightly (and leave a mark of the touch or stroke) but in a broader

less slight manner. Hence substantively a fleck is a piece of light, color,

substance, etcetera, looking as though shaped or produced by such

touches . . . Key to meaning of flick, fleck, and flake is that of striking or

cutting of the surface of the thing.^51

After reading this passage and seeing the strokes of metrical marks on the
poem, the last line of the 1st stanza bears new significance: “Óver agáin I féel
thy fínger and fínd thée.” Over the letters is the whip, the punishing spiritual