Gerard Manley Hopkins, Priest and Poet

by John Pick

Genres: Poetry

169 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1942

Reviews

[Matt Hoover · Rating 2 out of 5]

As another reviewer said, this book was practically inaccessible. In order to fully appreciate the content here, you must have a depth of understanding of poetic technique, the student culture of Oxford in the Victorian era, Roman Catholic Jesuit practice, Ignatian Spirituality, Irish populism, the writings of St. John of the Cross, and a host of other topics which nobody has the slightest clue about and which the author will not dare discuss in a way that makes it legible to the common reader. I have a conversant understanding of one of those topics and a passing familiarity with a few others and I was still lost. I would not want to read this book were I someone lacking a strong background in the Christian religion.

In addition, this book is much more poetic analysis than biography. The analysis is often a battle to get through. The author is also somewhat haphazard in his plot. He does not ever state when or why Hopkins died, simply that he did.

Are there any upsides here? Yes. Hopkins wrote beautiful poetry in an aesthetic sense and very interesting things about the relationship between God and man. His battles with his faith in conversion and his later intense scrupulousity after joining the Jesuits are compelling and rational. The author analyzes all of these things in a spiritually and intellectually cogent way. It will get you thinking at times.

All told, though, this was a tough read.

[John Fredrickson · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I had hoped for a book that would make the poetry of Hopkins more accessible, this is instead a rough biography of Hopkins' years in the Jesuit community. Along the way, numerous of Hopkins's verses and poems are discussed, and these discussions are indeed helpful in the way I had hoped, but only to a limited extent. The real audience for this book would be a Hopkins fan who is also a devout, presumably Catholic, Christian with a deep knowledge of Church doctrine and history.