Gerard Manley Hopkins

The Oxford Authors

by Gerard Manley Hopkins, Catherina Phillips (Editor)

This book collects the complete work of Jesuit Gerard Manley Hopkins, one of the most original and influential poets of the 19th century. Arranged in chronological order, and capturing the full range of his poetic interests at each stage of his life, the poems are complemented by selections from Hopkins' journals, sermons, and letters, which offer prose perspectives on the concerns which surface in the verse. Phillips has gone back to the original manuscripts, producing the most accurate text ever available, and revealing the poet's own taste more fully than has ever been possible.

Genres: Poetry, Victorian, Classics

429 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) was an English poet, Roman Catholic convert, and Jesuit priest, whose 20th-century fame established him posthumously among the leading Victorian poets. His experimental explorations in prosody (especially sprung rhythm) and his use of imagery established him as a daring innovator in a period of largely traditional verse.

Reviews

[Cale Manley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hadn’t been familiar with much of Hopkins’ poetry before. Apparently he was a priest which explains the theological depth of his writing. My favorites in this collection were “God’s Grandeur” and “On the Habit of Perfection.” I enjoyed “The Windhover” as well, but I didn’t completely understand what it means. As Alice in Wonderland said, “I have no idea what latitude and longitude are, but they’re grand words.”

[Alan Miles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hopkins reminds us that great poetry is intrinsically oral - a delight in the sound of word clusters and the rhythm of language. His theories of 'inscape' (the unique design of everything in God's creation) and 'sprung rhythm' (poetry imitating the rhythms of natural speech) made him a genuine innovator - who else in the 19th century had a voice like his? But in the end, it's just the sheer joy of reading his poetry aloud that I love. My particular favorite? The Windhover.

[Kurt]

This book is a collection of basically everything the guy wrote, but I only read the poetry. I did really ALL of it, which my co-worker did not actually advise due to his earlier stuff being significantly less interesting, and you know what? She was right! But I suffered through it and came out on the other side of the halfway-point of the poetry part admiring the remarkable innovations in rhythm Hopkins made, not to mention the incredible knack for alliteration and imagery! I'm not much of a poetry person, but the quality of many of those later poems was pretty self-evident even to me. I'll have to revisit the Eliot-esque complexity of "Spelt From The Sibyl's Leaves" at least one more time before I return this one to the library!

[Barbi Zemtsov · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love is vibrant rhythms and stunning alliteration. Beautiful poetry.

[Roger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Largely unpublished during his lifetime, Hopkins was one of the most important and inventive poets of his day, and this is a perfect introduction to his work.

[Don LaVange · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've really only read a few poems in here, and those, over and over. God's Grandeur, The Windhover: To Christ Our Lord, Pied Beauty, Spring and Fall: To a Young Child -- all written roughly during the same period are my very selected favorites, and the ones most anthologized. I am going to shelf this as reference and mark it as a re-read.

But I want to say a word about Hopkins as a poet. For one like I am, essentially disinterested in active religious thought (I practice religious thought that consists of thinking about how religious thought works rather than having religious thought myself, in strictest terms), finding the appeal in Hopkins' overtly religious poetry has been something of a replacement for my laid-aside religious nature. His synestheia induced joy and nature worship in the language of Christianity is at once comforting and healing for me. Perhaps it's not so bad a thing (you listening Dawkins, Hitchens et al?) to find God to be something that makes you weep for beauty and filled with love.

On the other hand, that same religion made Hopkins hate himself and his nature, and his final wishes were that all his poetry would be destroyed by his friend. Luckily, his friend didn't keep to that desire, or we would be much more impoverished.