Gerard Manley Hopkins, religious poet : a reading of Hopkin's 'mature' poetry as a record of his religious experience and belief

Abstract

It is my contention that the 'mature' poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins are a conclusive record of his religious development. They exhibit a loving reverence for God and his creatures. I propose to use the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church as an aid in making an interpretative analysis of the 'mature' poems, in order to demonstrate the validity of my thesis. It will be shown that the 'mature' poetry falls into four distinct groups. The first of these groups is made up of one poem, The Wreck of the Deutschland which is Hopkins's translation into poetry of his own religious experience approximately up to his ordination as a priest. The three remaining groups of poems consist in periods of emphasis during which Hopkins contemplated different aspects of his concept of the relationship between God and man. The first group emphasizes the manifestations of God in the external world. The second is concerned specifically with the relationship between God and man. And the third deals with Hopkins's period of desolation and despair. I shall demonstrate that, although these groups of poems appear to be different, there runs through all of them a single idea which binds them together and gives them a single purpose. This idea is that Christ is all important and must be worshipped. And the purpose in them is to worship and glorify Christ so that salvation may be gained.