Perception of ‘Inscape’ and Power of ‘Instress’ in the Poetic concept of Gerard Manley Hopkins

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) was held to be a priestly metaphor of Victorian Poetry and a syntactical simile of Modern Poetry. To express the individualizing characteristics of an object in a metaphysical terminology, Hopkins coined the terms „Inscape‟ and „Instress‟. He opines that „Inscape‟ reveals their creator just as the inner „self‟ of the bluebell explicitly manifests the divine. For Him, “Inscape is the very Soul of art” Thus, „Inscape‟, for Hopkins, doesn‟t mean just a visible scene which can fall into a satisfying artistic composition with a harmonious design or pattern. Another Hopkinsian term, „Instress‟ is closely related to „Inscape.‟ To Hopkins, it meant the internal force which holds inscapes together. It seems that in these usages, „Instress‟ is referred to the undercurrent of creative energy that supports and binds together the whole of the created world. It is meant to give things shape, from and meaning to the eye of the beholder. To Hopkins, „Instress‟ “refers to that core of being or inherent energy which is the actuality of the object; in effect „instress‟ stands for the specifically individual impression the object makes on man.”