By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘Pied Beauty’ belongs to the middle period of the poetic career of Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-89), that period when he had found his distinctive poetic voice but before he became plagued by depression later in his short life. The poem reflects this: ‘Pied Beauty’ is written by a poet who is confident in his style, and in his religious faith. Here are some thoughts on the poem, which might be considered some notes towards an analysis of it.
By Dr Oliver Tearle
This is one of Gerard Manley Hopkins’s so-called ‘Terrible Sonnets’, composed in the 1880s while he was living in Ireland and plunged in depression. The poem beautifully captures Hopkins’s trademark ‘eloquent inarticulacy’ and is one of the most powerful descriptions of a sleepless night in all of English poetry. Here is the poem, followed by an analysis.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
In our pick of Gerard Manley Hopkins’s best poems, we included ‘God’s Grandeur’, a sonnet celebrating ‘the grandeur of God’. Hopkins was one of the greatest religious poets of the entire nineteenth century, and this poem shows how he attained that reputation. Below is the poem, along with an analysis of some of its themes and linguistic features.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Who is being described? Born in the 1840s, he died young, and his poetry was only published after his death. When it appeared – in the early twentieth century – it was thanks to Robert Bridges, who became UK Poet Laureate in 1913. This poet, who was a friend of Bridges’, was drawn to the religion of Roman Catholicism. Indeed, much of his poetry is deeply religious. He was also known for his attachments to other young men, though nobody knows precisely how far these went.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Whittling down a great poet’s oeuvre to 10 essential must-read poems is always going to be difficult, and the list of the best Hopkins poems which follows is, we confess, somewhat personal.
But if you’re looking for an introduction to the spellbinding poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-89) or an excuse to revisit his work, we hope you’ll enjoy this list, which might be considered a follow-up to our post detailing our favourite Gerard Manley Hopkins facts. Follow the link in the title of each poem to read it.