«I mean by it a mood of great, abnormal infact, menta[ acuteness, either energetic or receptive, according as the thoughts which arise in it seem generated by a stress and action of the brain, or to strike into it unasked. This mood arises from various causes, phisical generally, as good health or state of the air or, prosaic as it is, length of time after a meal»0 • Benché Hopkins non ne parli esplicitamente, l'instress è letteralmente compreso nel testo e sommariamente definito. E proprio nella solitudine della meditazione (cui nel frattempo l'aveva condotto il voto religioso) e della contemplazione naturale, l'instress e l'inscape si rivelano necessari strumenti della percezione, per farsi poi, all'atto della scrittura, categorie privilegiate della descrizione. Così nascono i Diari (1863-1875)7: «From a height in Richmond Park saw trees in the river flat below inscaped in distinctly projected, crisp and almost hard, rows of loaves, their edges...». (J., 1868, 189) «...there is one notable dead tree... the inscape markedly holding its most simple and beautiful oneness up from the ground through». (J., 1870, 193) « What you look hard at seems to look hard at you: hence the true and false instress of nature» (J., 1871, 204) «Take a few primroses in a glass and the instress of - brilliancy, sort of starriness: I have not the right word- so simple a flower gives is remarkable. It is, I think, due to the strong swell given by the deeper yellow middle». (J., 1871, 207) «Ground sheeted with taut tattered streaks of crisp gritty snow... I saw the inscape though freshly, as if my eye were still growing, .though with a companion the eye and the ear are for the most 37
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