Short Biography of Gerard Manley Hopkins Reverend Father

Short Biography of Gerard Manley Hopkins • Reverend Father Gerard Manley Hopkins, S. J. (28 th July 1844 – 8 th June 1889) • • • English poet. Roman Catholic convert. Jesuit priest. He won fame posthumously. Victorian poet (19 th Century). Experimented with Prosody (the study of the patterns of sound and rhythms in poetry) (sprung rhythm ). • Known for his powerful use of imagery. • Daring innovator in a period of largely traditional verse.

Gerard Manley Hopkins’ views on Nature • The world is like a book written by God. • In this book God expresses himself completely, and it is by “reading” the world that humans can approach God and learn about Him.

Victorian Period (1837– 1901) • Golden period in the history of England. – Exploration – Colonization – Scientific Innovations & Scientific Temper – Industrial Explosion – Environmental Crisis

Hopkins and Victorian Crisis • Hopkins sees the environmental crisis of the Victorian period as vitally linked to that era’s spiritual crisis • His poems mourn man’s indifference to the destruction of sacred natural and religious order.

Sonnet & G. M. Hopkins • Hopkins wrote most frequently in the sonnet form. • He preferred the Italian or Petrarchan sonnet, which consists of – an octave (8 Lines) – followed by a sestet (6 Lines), – with a turn in argument or change in tone occurring in the second part. v. Hopkins typically uses vthe octave to present some account of personal or sensory experience vthe sestet for philosophical reflection.

God's Grandeur (1877) {OCTAVE} The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil; It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of OIL Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod? Generations have trod, have trod; And all is seared with TRADE; bleared, smeared with toil; And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod. (cont…)

God's Grandeur (cont. ) {SESTET} And for all this, nature is never spent; {VOLTA/ TURN} There lives the dearest freshness deep down things; And though the last lights off the black West went Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs — Because the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

Predominant Theme in the poetry of G. M. Hopkins • In his poetry, Hopkins used his deep love of nature’s beauty to reaffirm his belief in the God who created and maintained the world.

Themes in “God’s Grandeur”

Exposition of Natural Theology

The ugliness of modern life

Conservation and renewal of nature

Queries?

Next ?

See You Again…

Thank you…