In Culture
The Kestrel is sometimes seen, like other birds of prey, as a symbol of the power and vitality of nature. In "Into Battle" (1915), the war poet Julian Grenfell invokes the superhuman characteristics of the Kestrel among several birds, when hoping for prowess in battle:
"The kestrel hovering by day,
And the little owl that call at night,
Bid him be swift and keen as they,
As keen of ear, as swift of sight."
Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889) writes on the kestrel in his poem The Windhover, exalting in their mastery of flight and their majesty in the sky.
"I caught this morning morning's minion, king-
dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding"
Archaic names for the kestrel include windhover and windfucker, due to its habit of beating the wind (hovering in air).
A kestrel is also one of the main characters in The Animals of Farthing Wood.
Read more about this topic: Common Kestrel
Famous quotes containing the word culture:
“One of the oddest features of western Christianized culture is its ready acceptance of the myth of the stable family and the happy marriage. We have been taught to accept the myth not as an heroic ideal, something good, brave, and nearly impossible to fulfil, but as the very fibre of normal life. Given most families and most marriages, the belief seems admirable but foolhardy.”
—Jonathan Raban (b. 1942)
“Asia is rich in people, rich in culture and rich in resources. It is also rich in trouble.”
—Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978)