Product Description

This authoritative edition was originally published in the acclaimed Oxford Authors series under the general editorship of Frank Kermode. It brings together all Hopkins's poetry and a generous selection of his prose writings to give the essence of his work and thinking. Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-89) was one of the most innovative of nineteenth-century poets. During his tragically short life he strove to reconcile his religious and artistic vocations, and this edition demonstrates the range of his interests. It includes all his poetry, from best-known works such as 'The Wreck of the Deutschland' and ''The Windhover' to translations, foreign language poems, plays, and verse fragments, and the recently discovered poem 'Consule Jones'. In addition there are excerpts from Hopkins's journals, letters, and spiritual writings. The poems are printed in chronological order to show Hopkins's changing preoccupations, and all the texts have been established from original manuscripts.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #84602 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Review
Review from previous edition Catherine Phillips's excellent edition of the poems...will be the standard reading text for many years to come. (Times Literary Supplement )

Customer Reviews

A brief reflection on the works of Gerard Manley Hopkins
It is often thought that Hopkins represents the first truly modern thinker to come out of the turgid atmosphere of late Victorian poetry. The dynamism and energy of his writing fly from the page in tones which even his close friend Robert Bridges referred to as "obscure" and "peculiar". However, those looking to this Jesuit priest for modern themes will be disappointed. In his approach to God, and the general representation of the logos, we find a very different Hopkins. There is none of the assured atheism of Hardy here, but rather a lost and lonely believer. For Hopkins, God is not dead - rather He is hiding. This poet does not find its parallels with the writers of the 1920s and 1930s as Cecil Day Lewis suggests, but rather his writing is similar to that of the metaphysical poets of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. Donne would feel closer to Hopkins than Auden ever could. When Donne writes "Thou hast made me", it is in similar tones to Hopkins desires to find his God two centuries afterwards. "The Windhover" (I met this morning morning's minion...) with its ecstatic praise of God, dedicated to Jesus, is not the work of a doubtful Christian.