Gerard Manley Hopkins

(28 July 1844 – 8 June 1889 / Stratford, Essex)

poet Gerard Manley Hopkins
#154 on top 500 poets
Gerard Manley Hopkins
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Gerard Manley Hopkins Poems

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Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J. was an English poet, Roman Catholic convert, and Jesuit priest, whose posthumous fame established him among the leading Victorian poets. His experimental explorations in prosody and his use of imagery established him as a daring innovator in a period of largely traditional verse.

Life

Early life and family

Gerard Manley Hopkins was born in Stratford, Essex,as the first of nine children to Manley and Catherine (Smith) Hopkins. His father founded a marine insurance firm and, at one time, was the British consul general in Hawaii. He was also, for a time, the church warden at St John-at-Hampstead and a published writer whose works ... more »

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Quotations

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  • ''A great work by an Englishman is like a great battle won by England. It is an unfading bay tree.''
    Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889), British poet, Jesuit priest. letter, Oct. 13, 1886, to Robert Bridges. Gerard Manley Hopkins: Selected Letters, ed....
    19 person liked.
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  • ''The Indian gods are imposing, the Greek gods are not. Indeed they are not brave, not self-controlled, they have no manners, they are not gentlemen and ladies.''
    Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889), British poet, Jesuit priest. letter, Oct. 23, 1886, to Robert Bridges. Gerard Manley Hopkins: Selected Letters, ed....
    19 person liked.
    		12 person did not like.
  • ''I always knew in my heart Walt Whitman's mind to be more like my own than any other man's living. As he is a very great scoundrel this is not a pleasant confession.''
    Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889), British poet, Jesuit priest. letter, Oct. 18, 1882, to Robert Bridges. Gerard Manley Hopkins: Selected Letters, ed....
    23 person liked.
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  • I hold with the old-fashioned criticism that Browning is not really a poet, that he has all the gifts but the one needful and the pearls without the string; rather one should say raw nuggets and rough...
    Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889), British poet, Jesuit priest. letter, Oct. 17, 1881, to Richard Watson Dixon. Gerard Manley Hopkins: Selected Letter...
    13 person liked.
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  • ''It kills me to be time's eunuch and never to beget.''
    Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889), British poet, Jesuit priest. letter, Sept. 1, 1885, to Robert Bridges. Gerard Manley Hopkins: Selected Letters, ed....
    17 person liked.
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Comments about Gerard Manley Hopkins

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  • Lucille(5/9/2018 12:58:00 PM)

    very individual work

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  • Jolyon Laycock(5/1/2018 9:19:00 AM)

    Poem Hunter present a fine selection of Hopkins' work but there are notable omissions: Harry Ploughman, and That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire

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  • Frederick Kesner Frederick Kesner(3/7/2018 5:00:00 AM)

    Good to be reading and reacquainting with GM again!

    1 person liked.
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  • Rosella Decker(5/21/2013 7:05:00 AM)

    I just was watching an episode of The Waltons and John Boy read a poem to his mother, it was one of Gerard Manley Hopkin's poems.

    26 person liked.
    		11 person did not like.
  • Sarthak Das(4/1/2012 9:13:00 AM)

    hmmm...............nice 1 :)

    18 person liked.
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Read all 5 comments »
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Best Poem of Gerard Manley Hopkins

God's Grandeur

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, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge |&| shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
...

Read the full of God's Grandeur

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