Gerard Manley Hopkins

About the Author

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) was an innovative Victorian poet and Jesuit priest whose profound engagement with language and nature revolutionized English poetry. Born in Stratford, Essex, he studied at Oxford University before entering the Society of Jesus, where his religious vocation profoundly influenced his creative output. Hopkins developed 'sprung rhythm,' a unique metrical system that emphasized the natural stress patterns of speech, allowing for vivid expressions of ecstasy and inscape—the essential quality of individual things. Though much of his work remained unpublished during his lifetime due to his self-imposed silence on poetic pursuits, his posthumously released verses, including those in collections like Gerard Manley Hopkins: The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics) and Selected Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins (Dover Thrift Editions), have cemented his legacy as a precursor to modernist literature, celebrated for their intense musicality, religious fervor, and ecological sensitivity.