Eble, Joseph. Levels of Awareness: A Reading of Hopkins’ “Felix Randal.” Victorian Poetry. Vol. 13, No. 2             1975, pp. 129-135.
Dickens. Charles. The Uncommercial Traveller. Cambridge, Riverside Press, 1869.
Higgins, Lesley. The Collected Works of Gerard Manley Hopkins: Volume IV. 2006. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Hollahan, Eugene. "Himmelfarb's Culture of Poverty and Hopkins's 'Poor Jackself.'" Clio, Vol.25, No.1, 1995, pp. 43-62.

Lawton, Richard. "The Population of Liverpool in the Mid-19th Century." Transactions of the Historical Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, Vol. 107, 1956, pp. 89-120.
Mackenzie, Norman. A Reader’s Guide to Gerard Manley Hopkins. London. Thames and Hudson Ltd.

Mackenzie, Norman. Hopkins. London, Oliver and Boyd Ltd, 1968.

Mariani, Paul. Gerard Manley Hopkins: A Life. London, Penguin Books Ltd, 2008.
Martin, Robert Bernard. Gerard Manley Hopkis: A Very Private Life. HarperCollins Publishers, London, 1991.
Oxford English Dictionary. http://www.oed.com. Accessed 29th April 2019.
Phillips, Catherine. Gerard Manley Hopkins: The Major Works. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2009.

Regan, Stephen. "Victorian Sonnet, from George Meredith to Gerard Manley Hopkins." Yearbook of English Studies, Vol. 36, No. 2, 2006, pp. 17-34.
Roberts, Gerald. Gerard Manley Hopkins: The Critical Heritage. Oxon, Routledge, 2013.

Storey, Graham. A Preface to Hopkins: Second Edition. New York, Longman Group UK Ltd, 1992.

Thesing, William B. Gerard Manley Hopkins's Responses to the City: The "Composition of the Crowd." Victorian Studies, Vol. 30, No. 3 (Spring, 1987), pp. 385-408. Indiana University Press.

White, Norman. Hopkins: A Literary Biography. New York, Oxford University Press, 1992.

Other Sources.
Artist Unknown. An Architect's Drawing of St Francis Xavier, 1844. 1844. Jesuits in Britain, http://www.jesuit.org.uk/blog/archives-st-francis-xavier-liverpool
Goya, Francisco de. Forja (The Forge). 1819. Google Arts and Culture, https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-forge/swGt7JNeg13U_A
Hopkins, Gerard Manley. Letter to Baillie, May 22nd, 1880. 1880, Omnia UCD Library, http://www.omnia.ie/index.php?navigation_function=2&navigation_item=%2F2064501%2Fhttps___data_ucd_ie_data_ivrla_4044&repid=1
Ordnance Survey. Ordnance Survey Map of Everton, 1851. 1851. Historic Liverpool, https://historic-liverpool.co.uk/everton/
Ruskin, John. Spanish Chestnut at Carrara. 1839-1900, The Victorian Web,  http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/ruskin/wc/19.html

Word Count: 1,648.

For Hopkins, both as poet and devout Christian, nature, science, religion, and beauty were all inextricably linked. Brown describes Hopkins’ view of God as “a rational principle that guarantees order and pattern in the universe” (16), and this scientific approach to nature and religion opposed contemporary Darwinian views of the natural world as being in a perpetual state of  flux (Brown, 20); an avid follower of Ruskin, Hopkins’ search for natural order lead him to seek defining laws in natural phenomena, (Brown, 17) developing concepts which he would later call inscape and instress. He rejected positivism,stating that understanding only occurred when sensory impressions were understood in relation to each other (Brown, 27). As he explained in his essay ‘On the Origin on Beauty,’ his vision of beauty was the harmony between likeness and difference,(Higgins, 141) and hence, Hopkins’ poetry was a ultimately a search for harmony amidst conflict.

Hopkins  was an outsider, never truly comfortable amongst the middle-upper class nor with his parishioners; this, combined with his scientific approach to art and nature, made him a perfect observer, and to witness such social divisions and the subsequent deprivation affected him profoundly. To Dixon, he wrote: “Liverpool is of all places the most museless,” (Phillips, 244), and in a second letter described how his work left him “so fagged, so harried.” (White, 323) Evidently, for Hopkins, poetical inspiration would be difficult to come by and, in fact, he wrote little poetry during his time in "museless" Liverpool. Both an outcast of a prosperous family positioning himself best to help the poor, and a man  imbued with an “elitist temper” (Hollahan, np) which led him reject urban poverty and the associated  moral and spiritual corruption, Hopkins often expressed frustration at a human nature which he described as “so inveterate.” (Mariani, 255) 

This compulsion to seek unity is further witnessed through Hopkins’ use of structure. ‘Felix Randal’ is, firstly, a sonnet, often perceived by Victorian writers as an “enfeebled, outmoded form” (Regan, 17) which little scope for political expression. Yet, Hopkins utilises the traditional poetic form to help depict the social and political position of the Liverpool he knew. In fact, Hollahan regards Hopkins’ sonnets as some of his most “revolutionary” (np) poems, rewarding the poor with a rich and elite poetical style. If Hopkins’ perception of the truth and beauty of a subject was in the relationship and juxtaposition between the regular and the irregular, then here, the interplay between the traditional and his unusual use of structural form are indicative of this, and provide him with a means of exposing the truth of his life in Liverpool. 
The very idea of telling the tale of Felix Randal through the elite Petrarchan sonnet “ennobles the life of a Liverpool labourer” (Regan, 18) and perhaps is Hopkins’ own way of drawing attention to the hardship and poverty he witnessed. Furthermore, the extension of the sonnet line, employing alexandrines rather than iambic pentameter, allows a sprung rhythm, and therefore affords a more elegiac tone to this sombre poem (Regan, 32). It may also perhaps instill a “creative vitality” (Bragg, np) which better replicates the rhythms of everyday speech, more befitting of Randal himself, a citizen of a city brimming with different languages and dialects. The unity between these colloquialisms and this privileged form is a case of “common speech heightened” (Eble, 131). Moreover, Hopkins uses the Lancashire dialect throughout, suggesting an affinity with the world of his parishioners and the language they spoke: “all road ever” for example, a saying which means “in whatever way,” and words such as “fettle,” which means “dress, case or condition” in the Lancashire dialect (OED, n.2) Even the very opening line combines classical poetic diction with spoken language:

                                                         “Felix Randal the farrier, O is he dead then?”

The “O” may seem  to be more suited to an elite romantic ode but slips into a common expression of surprise when joined with the conversational tone of the question, “is he dead then?” (Regan, 33)

It may be pertinent to note that there is a distinct fascination with human physicality through his depictions of Christ, seen in his sermons and in the poem. The descriptions in the sermon of a male figure once “strong and yet (...) lovely and lissome” fallen into a state “beaten down” draw comparisons with Hopkins' portrait of Randal. In keeping with his Jesuit beliefs, Hopkins structures his sonnets into an octave which explores the subject, and a sestet which explores a religious or moral perspective (Bragg, np). He describes the “mould” of the man, another dialectal word with many layers of meaning; it is an Irish dialect word which can mean to bury, suitable for one so close to death, possibly encountered through Irish immigrants (OED, v.3); moreover, perhaps this term common in the field of metal work is suggestive of an outer shell formed by the soul of a human, once described in tones of admiration as “big-boned and hardy-handsome.” Within this first octave, Hopkins “inscape[s] so satisfactorily the combination of strength and a fine physique which he admired,” (A Reader's Guide", 136) showing his observational skills are not exclusively reserved to nature, but extend to the citizens he cared for.

The final tercet captures a flashback of the farrier at his peak physical strength, during his “boisterous years”; possible connotations of Samson’s “boisterous locks” again reminding us of Randal’s immense power ("Hopkins", 77). Hopkin’s employs sprung rhythm to great effect in the final line to capture the sound of a falling anvil, or horses galloping along cobbles ("A Reader's Guide", 78):

                                    “Didst fettle for the great grey drayhorse his bright and battering sandal!”

In doing so, Hopkins moves away from images of darkness and death and imparts the power and splendour of a horse he would have shoed upon Felix Randal ("Hopkins", 78) 
While it is undeniable that Hopkins felt overwhelmingly unsettled and disgusted by the poverty in Liverpool, his more democratic sympathies emerge as he transforms the pitiful farrier into a majestic figure and his use of the elite sonnet structure combined with dialectal speech privileges the lives of the poor, the suffering, and the everyday common people he knew (Regan, page 33). For Hopkins, the central focus of his poetry was to “explain, to communicate and to praise.” (Storey, 58) Even in Liverpool, a city devoid of traditional, natural beauty, Hopkins used poetry to find beauty in and accurately portray the lives of the poor, whilst simultaneously acknowledging their suffering. The petrarchan sonnet is not merely juxtaposed with the common figure of the farrier, but rather, Hopkins unifies the grandest forms of poetry with everyday tongue to heighten the position and importance of his parishioners.

Who have watched his mould of man, big-boned and hardy-handsome 

Pining, pining, till time when reason rambled in it, and some 

Fatal four disorders, fleshed there, all contended? 

Sickness broke him. Impatient, he cursed at first, but mended 

Being anointed and all; though a heavenlier heart began some 

Months earlier, since I had our sweet reprieve and ransom 

Tendered to him. Ah well, God rest him all road ever he offended! 

This seeing the sick endears them to us, us too it endears. 

My tongue had taught thee comfort, touch had quenched thy tears, 

Thy tears that touched my heart, child, Felix, poor Felix Randal; 

How far from then forethought of, all thy more boisterous years, 

When thou at the random grim forge, powerful amidst peers,

Didst fettle for the great grey drayhorse his bright and battering sandal!