Poems and Prose (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

Gerard Manley Hopkins (Author), W. H. Gardner (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Penguin Classics | Publication Date: December 30, 1953

Closer to Dylan Thomas than Matthew Arnold in his 'creative violence' and insistence on the sound of poetry, Gerard Manley Hopkins was no staid, conventional Victorian. On entering the Society of Jesus at the age of twenty-four, he burnt all his poetry and 'resolved to write no more, as not belonging to my profession, unless by the wishes of my superiors'. The poems, letters and journal entries selected for this edition were written in the following twenty years of his life, and published posthumously in 1918. His verse is wrought from the creative tensions and paradoxes of a poet-priest who wanted to evoke the spiritual essence of nature sensuously, and to communicate this revelation in natural language and speech-rhythms while using condensed, innovative diction and all the skills of poetic artifice.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-89) was born in Essex, the eldest son of a prosperous middle-class family. He was educated at Highgate School and Balliol College, Oxford, where he read Classics and began his lifelong friendship with Robert Bridges. In 1866 he entered the Roman Catholic Church and two years later he became a member of the Society of Jesus. In 1877 he was ordained and was priest in a number of parishes including a slum district in Liverpool. From 1882 to 1884 he taught at Stonyhurst College and in 1884 he became Classics Professor at University College, Dublin. In his lifetime Hopkins was hardly known as a poet, except to one or two friends; his poems were not published until 1918, in a volume edited by Robert Bridges.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics; Reprint of 1954 edition (December 30, 1953)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140420150
• ISBN-13: 978-0140420159
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #121,502 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Francis (Frank) McAloon is Assistant Professor of Spirituality at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley. He's a Hopkins scholar and loves teaching Christian spirituality and Hopkins. One of the courses he teaches is: Prayers, Poetry, and Hopkins.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hopkins: The Textual Pleasures of "Sprung Rhythm", April 7, 2000

By 

Lisa Anderson - See all my reviews

This review is from: Poems and Prose (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

Hopkins, a Welsh monk, was nearly lost to the public when he renounced his own work, burned a large portion of his creations and sunk into relative obscurity around the turn of the century. Oh, what a tragedy would that have been! Thanks to T.S. Eliot and other astute cultural advocates, this pioneer in the realm of confluence of sound and meaning has received more of the respect he deserves.

Hopkins' style is unique--a combination of Anglo-Saxon alliterative stress patterns, and a truly modern consciousness of spirituality and doubt. Although he draws heavily on Mediaeval techniques of versification, the poet's language escapes the flatline of the archaic through an energetic dynamism. The result is what he terms "sprung rhythm", wherein phonemes reach a level of excitement through rhythmic juxtaposition of stressed and unstressed syllables in an at times choppy, at times smooth pattern.

What I believe "Wreck of the Deutchland" is a masterpiece of Hopkins' language. This poem, like much of his work, is extraordinarily well suited to reading out loud. The ebb and flow of the paced alternation of syllabic and intoned stress gives the reader an intuitive feel for the thematic material of the poem. When the boat is tossed by rough waters, so tosses the reader's voice. When the narrator trembles with fear or faith, so trembles the reader's tongue. However, the sonic force of "Wreck of the Deutchland" is only one aspect of this multi-layered tapestry. The language of sound is a kind of precondition or foreshadowing of the meaning contained in the semantic and symbolic language of the text.

The thing perhaps that I love most about Hopkins is that he seems to incorporate all facets of expression in his work, but certainly not in a pedantic fashion. He is a metaphysical poet in the most honest and unassuming manner. The different textual layers arise and intermingle organically in the medium of the very accessibly, very human voice of a humble poet.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the great poetic geniuses of all English Literature- A Richness so rare no Ripeness could be greater, October 30, 2005

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Poems and Prose (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

Reading the early poems one immediately understands how great and conscious an effort Hopkins made to transform himself into a distinctive poetic voice.
Hopkins did not write a great deal( Compare his spare output to the reams of Wordsworth) but he wrote a number of poems which are, in my judgment, among the greatest in the language. He did this by creating a distinctive diction, and rhythm of his own.
The sprung rhythm which he employed had its origin in his reading of Anglo- Saxon poetry, with its emphasis on scanning the strong stresses alone. The alliterative quality of his verse also has its origin in early Anglo- Saxon poetry.
But Hopkins infuses his work with an intensity of meaning, a richness so rare no ripeness could be greater.
Among the truly great poems in this collection my favorites are"," Thou Art Indeed Just Lord", " God's Grandeur" " and Felix Randal."
This is great great poetry, and among the greatest written about human suffering.
Emily Dickinson would have felt a chill down her spine at reading it. And for Kafka it would have most certainly broken up the icy- sea within.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the finest poets of his generation!, November 5, 2004

By 

Christiana Washington (Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Poems and Prose (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

I am a great fan of Hopkins. His work touches not merely the intellect, but the soul with its depth of insight and tenderness. There is a richness to his work that many of the poets who were his contemporaries lacked. There is faith, hope, love, and a respect for the universe and its Creator. Another beautiful Penguin Classic collection. Every library personal and public should have a copy.