Instress refers to which concept?

• A. The central dramatic conflict
• B. The structure of a sonnet
• C. A moral lesson of a story
• D. The force of inscape impressing itself on the viewer

Answer: (D)

In Hopkins’s poetics, inscape is the unique pattern that defines a thing’s selfhood. Instress is the force by which that pattern presses upon the observer’s mind, making the thing’s individuality visibly present and immediately felt. This explains why the term refers to a perceptual imprint rather than to plot, form, or a moral message. When you encounter a leaf or a face in a poem, the inscape is its distinctive make-up, and instress is the energetic pressure that impresses that make-up onto your perception, so you recognize something singular about what you’re seeing.