Hopkins’ father, Manley Hopkins, had also been a poet — having published a few titles, including A Philosopher's Stone and Other Poems (1843). However, their relationship became estranged when the younger Hopkins left the Anglicanism of his youth to join the Catholic church.
Although he is often referred to as one of the Victorian Era’s best poets, most of his poems were unpublished during his lifetime. It wasn’t until thirty years after his death that Robert Bridges (who was the United Kingdom’s Poet Laureate at the time) arranged for a volume of Hopkins’ work, simply called Poems, to be published. By 1930 the “sprung rhythm” of Hopkins’ poetry had come to be seen as an important innovation in 19th century poetry, by such people as W.H. Auden, T.S. Eliot, and Dylan Thomas.
from “Pilate”
...There is a day of all the year
When life revisits me, nerve and vein.
They all come here and stand before me clear
I try the Christus o'er again.
Sir! Christ! against this multitude I strain. —
Lord, but they cry so loud. And what am I?
And all in one say "Crucify!"
Before that rock, my seat, He stands;
And then — I choke to tell this out —
I give commands for water for my hands;
And some of those who stand about, —
Vespillo my centurion hacks out
Some ice that locks the glacier to the rocks
And in a basin brings the blocks.
I choose one; but when I desire
To wash before the multitude
The vital fire does suddenly retire
From hands now clammy with strange blood.
My frenzied working is not understood.
Now I grow numb. My tongue strikes on the gum
And cleaves, I struggle and am dumb.
I hear the multitude tramp by.
O here is the most piteous part,
For He whom I send forth to crucify,
Whispers "If thou have warmth at heart
Take courage; this shall need no further art."
*This is the fourth Kingdom Poets post about Gerard Manley Hopkins: first post, second post, third post.
Entry written by D.S. Martin. He is the author of six poetry collections including Angelicus (2021, Poiema/Cascade), plus three anthologies — available through Wipf & Stock. His new book The Role of the Moon, inspired by the Metaphysical Poets, is now available from Paraclete Press.
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