Tab Article

ratings: ★★★★★ (5/5)
Genre: Poetry / Classics / Victorian Literature / Religious Poetry

Book Review:
Gerard Manley Hopkins is one of those poets who seems to exist outside of time. A Jesuit priest who wrote in the Victorian era, his work was so ahead of its time that it wasn't published until 30 years after his death. When it finally appeared, it changed English poetry forever. This Penguin Classics edition, edited by the great Hopkins scholar W. H. Gardner, is the perfect introduction to his genius. Hopkins's poetry is like nothing else: intense, musical, bursting with energy and invention. He called his technique ''sprung rhythm,'' and it gives his lines a visceral, almost physical power. His subjects are often the natural world—''The Windhover,'' a poem about a kestrel in flight, which he called his best—but also his deep Catholic faith, as in the long, difficult, and magnificent ''The Wreck of the Deutschland.'' This volume also includes selections from his letters and journals, which reveal a man of deep feeling, sharp observation, and profound spirituality. If you love poetry, you must read Hopkins. If you've never read him, start here. You'll be amazed.