Customer Reviews

The Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins (Oxford Paperbacks)

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THE POEMS OF GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS. Fourth Edition based on the First Edition of 1918 and enlarged to incorporate all known poems and fragments. Edited by W. H. Gardner and N. H. Mackenzie. 362 pp. Oxford and New York : Oxford University Press, 1970. ISBN 0-19-281094-4 (pbk.)

For anyone who is interested in Hopkins, and everyone should be, this is the standard and authoritative edition. It gives us the only complete and accurate text which for the first time puts the poems in their true chronological order.

The poems have been arranged in four sections : Early Poems (1860-1875?); Poems (1876-1879); Unfinished Poems, Fragments, Light Verse, &c. (1862-89); Translations, Latin and Welsh Poems, &c. (1862-67). The book contains a useful and informative Introduction and Foreword, and is rounded out with very full Notes, a series of Appendices, and Indexes of titles and first lines. It is also beautifully printed on excellent paper, stitched, and bound in a sturdy glossy wrapper.

Hopkins had a unique sensibility, and brought something very special and of great value into English poetry. He seems to have had the ability to enter into the intelligence and feelings and spirit of all life forms, whether animal or plant or even landscape, to resonate with the indwelling divinity within them, and to somehow magically bring the miracle of their vibrant being over into his poems.

Hopkins is in fact a striking example of the fully human sensibility as described in the works of Heidegger and the great thinkers of the East, and exemplifies a quality of sensibility which most of us seem somehow to have lost. We skate dully and blindly over the surface of things, but Hopkins plunges into the depths of being and carries us along with him. In other words, he puts us back in touch with reality, with what life is really about. Hence his enormous value and importance.

In a complete collection such as this, there are bound to be many poems that fall short of greatness. For the newcomer to Hopkins, one suggested approach might be to first read some of his greatest poems, poems such as 'God's Grandeur,' 'Spring,' 'The Windhover,' 'Pied Beauty,' 'The Caged Skylark,' 'Binsey Poplars,' 'As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame.'

There are many beauties to enjoy in Hopkins - his unique use of language, his control of sound and rhythm, his amazing images and metaphors - but for me the most beautiful thing of all is the news he brings, news of a universe in which all things are of infinite value and infinitely precious, and in which no creature is of any less value than another because all are indwelt by divinity:

"Each mortal thing does one thing and the same : / Deals out that being indoors each one dwells ; / Selves, goes itself ; _myself_ it speaks and spells, / Crying _What I do is me : for that I came_" (p.90).

Hopkins makes us acutely aware of our loss, and our crime. His poems map out a path back to a saner, more balanced, and more wholesome and intelligent way of dwelling on the earth, dwelling lightly upon it with all other creatures and as its guardian, not its ravager.

"O if we but knew what we do / When we delve or hew - / Hack and rack the growing green! / ... After-comers cannot guess the beauty been...' (pp.78-9).

Hopkins, I think, would have been very much in agreement with Heidegger who tells us that the earth must once again become a _Spielraum_ , a space of great beauty in which to play, and one in which all creatures, instead of being treated as mere objects, are allowed to do what they came here to do, to develop the full potential of their natures and fulfill themselves as manifestations of divinity. His poems are unforgettable, and one envies those who may be coming to them for the first time.

The first poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins I read was "PiedBeauty," which was included in a book of poetry for children thatwas given to me by my great-aunt. In high school, I read "Spring and Fall: to a young child" and loved it, though I did not realize it was by the same author. It was only college that I connected the two, and discovered a wonderful poet, who has become one of my favorites.

For a fan of Hopkins looking for an authoritative volume, this edition is a treasure. In addition to his better known works, it contains early poems, numerous fragments, and unfinished works, in fact "every scrap of English verse which can be ascribed... to Hopkins" (from the Introduction xvii). In addition, it contains a good essay on Hopkins and his work, and extensive textual notes.

Hopkins poetry may appear obscure and difficult at first, and in fact it is, at times, wildly original. Hopkins' language is deliberately archaic and inventive, and he both revives wonderful words not used since Shakespeare, and makes up his own. Hopkins also writes in "sprung rhythm," a metrical style that is almost syncopated, and juxtaposes stressed syllables. I recommend reading his poems out loud. The sheer beauty of his language will inspire you to recite the words over and over again, until you understand his meaning: the essence which he is trying to distill. New readers may be daunted by this volume at first, and find that Hopkins' great poems are "submerged in a mass of less significant fragments" (Intro xiv). I would suggest his sequence of ten sonnets (#31-40) as an ideal place to start reading.

Hopkin's friend and fellow poet Robert Bridges wrote that Hopkins strove "for the unattainable perfection of language," and at times he seems to have actually obtained it: "Men go by me whom either beauty bright / In mould or mind or what not else make rare: / They rain against our much-thick and marsh air / Rich beams, till death or distance buys them quite." (The Lantern out of Doors, #40). END

Many lines on my Kindle 3 have rectangular boxes containing questions marks prepended. So "The Wreck of the Deutschland" looks something like

???????????????Thou mastering me
??????????God! giver of breath and bread;
?????World's strand, sway of the sea;
??????????Lord of living and dead;
???Thou hast bound bones and veins in me, fastened me flesh,
???And after it almost unmade, what with dread,
?????Thy doing: and dost thou touch me afresh?
Over again I feel thy finger and find thee.

There are some poems where this doesn't happen at all, and others where it regularly occurs. I think the ?s represent spaces for formatting indentations. It would be nice if there were a way to either filter the ?s out or convert them to spaces. Given a relatively low price, and given that this seems to be a comprehensive collection of Hopkins' poetry, 3 stars seems a fair rating.

Gardner and MacKenzie have compiled a fine collection of Hopkins' juvenalia, mature work, and uncollected fragments/translations.

I wish that I knew what to say to compel readers unfamiliar with his work to buy this or another collection. The Terrible Sonnets are among the most moving treatment of spiritual anguish in the English language. If you are doubting, take the time to look "Carrion Comfort" up on the web-- the poems are available at Bartleby.com. This book is one of my constant poetic companions.

For readers already familiar with the more famous pieces, it is a treat to see his younger work and translations. Reading the book as a whole gives a picture of a mind in motion. What led him to this point?

"NO worst, there is none. Pitched past pitch of grief,
More pangs will, schooled at forepangs, wilder wring.
Comforter, where, where is your comforting?"

Read it, read it, read it.

This review does not relate to the quality and character of the Oxford Complete Poems. It rather relates to Hopkins unique greatness as a poet which I will try to say a few words about.
Hopkins created his own style of verse, his own vocabulary for perceiving the world, his own special rhythm and language in poetry.
He is not the most easy poet to understand, and I will admit that his longer poems lose me.
When I consider his work I relate primarily to five, six , seven poems which seem to me extraordinary. " The world is charged with the Grandeur of God" and " Thou art indeed just, Lord" and "Felix Randall the Farrier, Is he dead then?' are to me the most memorable. They contain a power and beauty, a tremendous sense of identification with and understanding of the suffering in life, a kind of unique and intimate perception of the details of the natural world.
Hopkins the tormented priest wrote to my mind some of the most memorable and beautiful lines in the English language. Consider the closing of ' Thou art Indeed Just Lord" "Birds build but not I build/ but break Times wounds And never breed one work that wakes Thou O My Lord of Life Send my roots Rain."

This is a truly great book -- but the Kindle edition is not properly formatted for the Kindle. There is no table of contents or links to individual poems. The line breaks in many poems are in the wrong location. Some of the greatest of his poems do not even have line breaks at all but are formatted as a single paragraph. Too bad, but I recommend looking for a better edition of this book.

On my Kindle, I don't know how to get beyond the introduction and to the poems. I do next page after next page and just get introduction. Pressing the joy stick right does nothing. There is a brief table of contents at the beginning, but Early Poems and Poems are not selectable. Of course, I can go to a high-numbered location, but I have no sensible way to choose the number. In addition, since the introduction was formatted for the Kindle DX, the lines run over on the Kindle 2.

Of course if you know Hopkins, you can do a search on a word or two. The only word I knew to search for was "dappled". This led me to the poem I was looking for, and I enjoyed it and the next few poems. The poems fit on the page quite well.

On reconsideration, I wanted to change my rating from one to three stars, but Amazon wouldn't let me.

Very disappointing edition. The problem is that there is no proper index which makes it very hard to find individual poems. I find this very annoying. Am now trying to find Gardner's edition as an ebook.