V3I2P14

Gerard Manley Hopkins: Priest, Preacher, Professor, and Poet- A Unique Personality of Divine Endowment in English Literature, in Whom Poetry Glorifies Spirituality and Nature Worships God

Samapti Banerjee^1*

Abstract

The renowned Victorian priest –poet Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-89) had made an immortal place in English Literary world due to his grand, innovative writing style and remarkable literary works. According to Christopher Ricks, Hopkins was “the most original poet of the Victorian age.” His poems were published posthumously in the year 1918 by Robert Bridges in collected form.  The readers of G.M. Hopkins and English Literature will always remain grateful to Robert Bridges (later became the Poet Laureate from 1913-1930 of  the United Kingdom) for his initiative for publishing Hopkins’ poems and the readers also admire his genuine friendship with Hopkins. It was Bridges who was not only a physician but also the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, for whom Hopkins received posthumous fame and overwhelming acclamation from the readers worldwide. Hopkins was an Anglican and the eldest son of Manley Hopkins and Catherine Hopkins. Hopkins did not like his middle name. His middle class family had impacted much in constructing his morale make up; his family followed strong High Anglican standards and had a profound interest in art, music and literature.  Due to Hopkins’ extraordinary excellence in Academics he was called “the star of Balliol.” Hopkins chose priesthood as his profession and was determined to sincerely follow all the rules of this ascetic order. Hopkins was very much influenced by his contemporary Pre-Raphaelite painter- poets D.G. Rossetti, Christina Rossetti et.al. Hopkins acquainted with Christina Rossetti in 1864. Hopkins was also highly inspired by John Ruskin and his tutor cum friend, the great literary critic Walter Pater. Hopkins was a devout Christian and had followed the rules of priesthood with incredible austerity and devotion. He was so much genuine and devoted to his profession that he had renounced all his out worldly desires and abandoned his most favored act of writing and led the life of an ascetic priest. Hopkins “symbolically burned his poems, though he sent some copies to Bridges for safe-keeping”. Hopkins’ poetry expresses a minute detailing of things and has resemblance with the Pre-Raphaelite artistic features. In the later life he was employed as the professor of Greek and Latin in the University College of Dublin in the year 1884 and he carried on working in this post till his last breath.  This study follows close reading of the poems. The elaborate, analytical, interpretive, descriptive methodologies provide a broader vision and clarity in understanding Hopkins’ rich poetry. This research follows the theoretical approaches of the Inscape, Instress, Sprung rhythm, Ecocriticsm , Phenomenology, Proto-modernism, Christological Poetics, Theory of Suffering and Divine Discontent and The Sacramental Theory of Nature which provide the profound knowledge to understand the grave and great literary works of the highly talented poet, G. M. Hopkins.

Keywords:

Inscape, instress, sprung rhythm, spirituality, divine discontent, poetry, poetic silence, depression, conflict, dual passions, austere, ascetic, aesthetic, nature