Collection: Gerard Manley Hopkins

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889) was an English poet and Jesuit priest known for his innovative use of language and poetic form. He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, where he discovered Catholicism, then joined the Jesuit order in 1868. He initially gave up poetry, believing it to be incompatible with his religious studies, but by writing “The Wreck of the Deutschland” in 1875, about the loss of five Franciscan nuns at sea, he was able to reconcile his poetic drive with his religious vocation. “Deutschland” marked his first use of “sprung rhythm,” a unique poetic meter that mimics natural speech. In addition to divinity, his poetry often explored themes of nature, beauty, longing, and spiritual tension. His work went largely unpublished during his lifetime, but with the original publication of this volume by Robert Bridges in 1918, he was quickly acknowledged as a pivotal figure in Victorian poetry and a precursor to modernist literature.