Customer Reviews

God's Grandeur and Other Poems (Dover Thrift Editions)

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Hopkins is one of those poets hidden from so many because of his subject matter, yet is considered one of the most influential Victorian poets for his use of word combinations, meter and image.

Most his work was published posthumously, as late as 1920 or so, and immediately influenced the likes of T.S. Elliot (AKA, the guy who wrote the poem "Cats" is based on and "Wasteland") and his contemporaries.

While Whitman and Wilde were exalting in themselves, and just after Emerson and Thoreau were helping us see creation, Hopkins demonstrated prowess in pointing readers to see the Creator in the creation.

Atheists won't agree with him, of course, but he says it so well, they will at least go, "Hmm... if I believed, I could see that... yeah, wow, well put." The Catholics will cheer him on, "Atta boy... yep, that guy's a Jesuit!" Not undone are the Protestants who will be so impressed in agreement they'll be happy he was a Christian.

Check out this snippet from "Pied Beauty" "Glory be to God for dappled things--/For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;/For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;/Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches wings;/Landscape plotted and pieced--fold, fallow, and plough;/And 'all tra'des, their gear and tackle and trim." Those accents are in the original.

Delicious to say aloud? You should hear the second verse. His others are as tasty.

This edition is something you want to pop in with a larger Amazon order... buy it on whimsy if you aren't sure. It is an inexpensive as book can get this side of free.

I fully recommend this book.

Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com

On those days when getting out of bed is a psychological problem, I take one cup of earl grey with milk and a shot of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Something about the way he puts his words together makes me walk out of the house seeing in a totally diferent way. Hopkins struggles with what it is to be faithful, with what it is to live in creation in a way which honors God, with what, finally, it is to be human. I'm particularly fond of this volume, just because it contains all my favorite of his poems. I've tried a couple of other collections of his work, but I find that I just flip through them until I come to the stuff that I like from this one, so what's the point. Carrion Comfort, The Windhover, and God's Grandeur are incredible pieces of work. I've read them, literally, hundreds of times and they have not lost their ability to challenge me. That, in my experience, is a rare thing; something that helps me get out of bed in the morning.

The poetry of Fr. Gerard Manley Hopkins is some of the greatest modern Catholic poetry ever produced by an Englishman. Received into the Catholic Church by J.H. Newman and later ordained a Jesuit priest, Fr. Hopkins never made a name for himself while alive. After his death, a friend of his discovered his poetry, compiled it into a short volume, and published it. It immediately became a hit amongst the English, and eventually spread throughout the entire Catholic world.

Hopkins uses a variety of verse (from sprung to your run-of-the-mill iambic pentameter), which makes for an exciting read. Some of his poems, such as GOD'S GRANDEUR and PIED BEAUTY have even made it into a poetry appendix in the American translation of the Catholic breviary. These poems are wonderful starters for meditation, and they capture the thoughts of a man's heart as it aspires towards God. A wonderful read.

This is a good, inexpensive introduction to Gerard Manley Hopkins. There is a brief section talking about Hopkins and how much of his poetry was lost. This gives you an idea of who is giving you this poetry.

For the poetry student, the Author's Preface is essential. Here, Sprung Rhythm is explained. If you are not a serious student of poetry, this will probably be lost on you. It is not necessary to read the poetry, but to understand Hopkins' style, it is a must-read.

The poetry itself is filled with religious and classical images and allusions. If you are not well-read, like me, you may not get every thing that Hopkins is explaining to you. There are some notes in the back, but these are limited. I have no doubt that Hopkins is intelligent, but I will need to do some extra reading to fully understand all of this.

I think this is a great read. It is not a quick read by any means. This is poetry which is read again and again to get a full understanding. I would also recommend reading this aloud.

I do not know whether this volume contains the whole of Hopkins' poetry, but it does contain a number of his immortal poems. 'Felix Randal, the Farrier' The world is filled with the Grandeur of God, 'Pied Beauty'.
Hopkins is in my feeling one of the greatest of English poets. His verse has an intensity, a freshness in which he sees into the deepest heart of things. It has a portrayal of mood and feeling, especially despair which is deep and unique. His language is his own and his rhythm a remarkable invention and return to primal Anglo-Saxon sprung verse. Some of his lines go with me all the time, inspire and fill me with a sense of how Beauty in Words lifts the Soul.
I myself love two poems of his above all, the one which begins with 'Thou art Indeed Just Lord' and which ends with 'Birds build, but not I build, but strain , Time's Eunuch, and never breed one work that wakes, Thou, O my Lord of Life, Send my Roots Rain. " And the second I most love is the title poem of this collection, " The world is charged with the Grandeur of God/
It will flame out like shining from shook foil/.
There are other more richly annotated editions of his poems which are also recommended.