Gerald Manley Hopkins
Gerald Manley Hopkins
BiographyGerard Manley Hopkins,(bornJuly 28, 1844,Stratford,
Essex, Eng.diedJune 8, 1889,Dublin),English poet andJesuitpriest,
one of the most individual of Victorian writers. His work was not
published in collected form until 1918, but it influenced many
leading 20th-century poets.Hopkins was the eldest of the nine
children of Manley Hopkins, an Anglican, who had been British
consul general in Hawaii and had himself published verse. Hopkins
won thepoetryprize at the Highgate grammar school and in 1863 was
awarded a grant to study at Balliol College, Oxford, where he
continued writing poetry while studying classics. In 1866, in the
prevailing atmosphere of theOxford Movement, which renewed interest
in the relationships between Anglicanism and Roman Catholicism, he
was received into the Roman Catholic Church by John Henry (later
Cardinal) Newman. The following year, he left Oxford with such a
distinguished academic record that Benjamin Jowett, then a Balliol
lecturer and later master of the college, called him the star of
Balliol. Hopkins decided to become a priest. He entered the Jesuit
novitiate in 1868 and burned his youthful verses, determining to
write no more, as not belonging to my profession.In 1874 Hopkins
went to St. Beunos College in North Wales to study theology. There
he learned Welsh, and, under the impact of the language itself as
well as that of the poetry and encouraged by his superior, he began
to write poetry again. Moved by the death of five Franciscan nuns
in a shipwreck in 1875, he broke his seven-year silence to write
the long poemThe Wreck of the Deutschland,in which he succeeded in
realizing the echo of a new rhythm that had long been haunting his
ear. It was rejected, however, by the Jesuit magazineThe Month.He
also wrote a series of sonnets strikingly original in their
richness of language and use of rhythm, including the remarkable
The Windhover, one of the most frequently analyzed poems in the
language. He continued to write poetry, but it was read only in
manuscript by his friends and fellow poets,Robert Bridges(later
poet laureate), Coventry Patmore, and the Rev. Richard Watson
Dixon. Their appreciation of the strangeness of the poems (for the
times) was imperfect, but they were, nevertheless,
encouraging.Ordained to the priesthood in 1877, Hopkins served as
missioner, occasional preacher, and parish priest in various Jesuit
churches and institutions in London, Oxford, Liverpool, and Glasgow
and taught classics atStonyhurst College, Lancashire. He was
appointed professor of Greekliteratureat University College,
Dublin, in 1884. But Hopkins was not happy in Ireland; he found the
environment uncongenial, and he was overworked and in poor health.
From 1885 he wrote another series of sonnets, beginning withCarrion
Comfort.They show a sense of desolation produced partly by a sense
of spiritual aridity and partly by a feeling of artistic
frustration. These poems, known as the terrible sonnets, reveal
strong tensions between his delight in the sensuous world and his
urge to express it and his equally powerful sense of religious
vocation.After suffering ill health for several years and bouts
ofdiarrhoea, Hopkins died oftyphoid feverin 1889 and was buried
inGlasnevin Cemetery, following his funeral inSaint Francis Xavier
ChurchonGardiner Street, located in GeorgianDublin.Style of
writingHopkins wrote most frequently in the sonnet form. He
generally preferred the Italian or Petrarchan sonnet, which
consists of an octave followed by a sestet, with a turn in argument
or change in tone occurring in the second part. Hopkins typically
uses the octave to present some account of personal or sensory
experience and then employs the sestet for philosophical
reflection. While Hopkins enjoyed the structure the sonnet form
imposes, with its fixed length and rhyme scheme, he nevertheless
constantly stretched and tested its limitations. One of his major
innovations was a new metrical form, called sprung rhythm. In
sprung rhythm, the poet counts the number of accented syllables in
the line, but places no limit on the total number of syllables. As
opposed to syllabic meters (such as the iambic), which count both
stresses and syllables, this form allows for greater freedom in the
position and proportion of stresses. Whereas English verse has
traditionally alternated stressed and unstressed syllables with
occasional variation, Hopkins was free to place multiple stressed
syllables one after another (as in the line All felled, felled, are
all felled from Binsey Poplars), or to run a large number of
unstressed syllables together (as in Finger of a tender of, O of a
feathery delicacy fromWreck of the Deutschland). This gives Hopkins
great control over the speed of his lines and their dramatic
effects.Another unusual poetic resource Hopkins favored is
consonant chiming, a technique he learned from Welsh poetry. The
technique involves elaborate use of alliteration and internal
rhyme; in Hopkinss hands this creates an unusual thickness and
resonance. This close linking of words through sound and rhythm
complements Hopkinss themes of finding pattern and design
everywhere.SpringGerard Manley Hopkins [1844-1899]
Relevant BackgroundHopkins was a priest who wrote Nature
Poetry.He celebrated beauty in the natural world. He loved the
freshness of spring.In many of his poems, like Spring, he linked
beauty in nature to prayer.He thought that beauty in nature was a
reminder of Gods love and greatness.He thought that beauty in
nature was a reminder of the innocence and purity of childhood.He
wrote this poem more than a hundred years ago.Hopkins wrote in a
beautiful style that was sometimes difficult. He liked to express
his feelings and views in new ways. He left out words such as like
in line three and changed the normal word order like in line
eight.He often used striking and dramatic comparisons like in line
three.Hopkins put a lot of sound effects into his poetry.He wrote
many of his poems in the sonnet form.He enjoyed the unique shape,
colours, beauty and inner energy of nature.
Spring by Gerald Manley HopkinsNothing is so beautiful as Spring
When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush; Thrushs eggs
look little low heavens, and thrushThrough the echoing timber does
so rinse and wringThe ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him
sing; The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush The
descending blue; that blue is all in a rushWith richness; the
racing lambs too have fair their fling.
What is all this juice and all this joy? A strain of the earths
sweet being in the beginningIn Eden garden. Have, get, before it
cloy, Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning,Innocent
mind and Mayday in girl and boy, Most, O maids child, thy choice
and worthy the winning.
Spring is a sonnet. A sonnet is a rhyming fourteen-line poem.
The poem is divided into two clearly different parts. The first
part, of eight lines, is known as the octave. The second part, of
six lines, is known as the sestet.Nothing is so beautiful as spring
is the first line of the poem.This line clearly summarises the
meaning of the first eight lines or octave of the poem Spring. A
lot of this part of the poem, the octave, is easier to understand
than the sestet. In the octave, Hopkins mentions many of the
details of spring that impress him. He gives a series of images one
after the other that are typical of the season of spring.In the
second line he pictures fresh weeds growing through a wheel in a
yard.In the third line he praises the speckled colours on a
thrushes egg.In the fourth and fifth lines he shows his delight at
the wonderful sound of the thrushes song in the woods and compares
its effect to lightning.In the sixth line he portrays the shiny
leaves and blossoms of the pear-tree.In the seventh line he
describes the fast moving and richly coloured blue sky.In the
eighth line he shows his delight at the playful lambs.
In the sestet, the last six lines, Hopkins looks for the real
meaning that lies behind the happiness and energy of nature in
springtime. Therefore the sestet develops the thought of the poem.
It looks for the meaning behind the beauty. Hopkins finds that
natures beauty reflects Gods perfect beauty. He then expresses a
wish to shelter the beauty and innocence of childhood from sin.In
line nine Hopkins asks the following basic question:What is all
this juice and all this joy?In line ten, Hopkins quickly answers
that it all goes back to the Garden of Eden from the bible. As a
priest he believes in the stories of the bible. Spring is like an
echo or a reminder of Paradise.In line eleven he begins a prayer.
He prays God will preserve beauty before it loses its wholesomeness
or purity.In line twelve he appeals to Christ and asks him to
protect beauty from sin.In line thirteen he identifies the aspect
of beauty he most wishes to see preserved. He is referring to
childhood innocence. He obviously sees this as the springtime or
Mayday of human life.In line fourteen he appeals to Jesus as the
child of Mary to win innocent children to his side and save them
from sin.This is unusual because normally people who pray to Jesus
want to be cleansed of sin after it happens. Jesus is normally the
saviour of sinners. Hopkins wants Jesus to save the
innocent.Overall it seems Hopkins changes the subject of the
octave, nature, and introduces a new subject, religion, in the
sestet.
Themes
Hopkins praises the beauty of nature in springtime:Nothing is so
beautiful as spring. He calls it all this juice and all this
joy.Hopkins celebrates energy in the natural world:weeds, in
wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush. Note how thewandlsounds are
musical and add to the feeling of energy.Hopkins celebrates colour
in the natural world:that blue is all in a rush with richness. Note
how the repeatedrsound deepens the meaning.Hopkins regards natures
beauty as a memory of Paradise: A strain of the earth's sweet being
in the beginning in Eden gardenHopkins feels despair at the way
maturity spoils childhood innocence:sour with sinning. He worries
for the future of innocent minds. He tells Jesus to preserve
childrens perfect innocence.
