“Here's my latest version - ignore the premise two”

March 12

Dorothy Lee on Gerard Manley Hopkins

The English poet and priest Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) has been a major influence on my own life and spirituality. I first encountered him at University and loved then the intensity of his language and faith. Still today, many years later, his poems can come to my mind in odd moments and I continue to be amazed at how they articulate the deep things with beauty and truthfulness.

Hopkins was brought up in a High Anglican and very literary environment. He was deeply influenced by the Tractarian movement when he was a student at Oxford, and was received into the Roman Catholic Church by John (later Cardinal) Henry Newman in 1866. His poems all date from his later years as a Jesuit priest.

My talk will consider how Hopkins’ poetry - influenced by another favourite of mine, Christina Rossetti - communicates a vivid sense of the beauty of nature and the creative work of Christ within it. His poems are characterised by unique rhythms and intricate language-play, a passionate depth of feeling, and a love of the Old English rather than Latin roots of English. Sadly his poetry was not appreciated until after his death, when it was published posthumously by Robert Bridges in 1918. We will explore why his poetry nevertheless had such a significant influence on subsequent generations and how it continues to speak to us today.

Dorothy Lee FAHA is a New Testament scholar at Trinity College in the University of Divinity, an Anglican priest and a published author and poet.