Life and Career
Hopkins was born in Stratford, Essex, England, and was raised in a strict Anglican family. He showed a talent for poetry at an early age, and he attended Oxford University, where he became a prominent figure in the Oxford Movement, a group of Anglican intellectuals who sought to revive traditional Catholic rituals and beliefs.
In 1866, Hopkins converted to Roman Catholicism, and in the following year he entered the Jesuit order. He spent the next 10 years studying and training as a priest, and he was ordained in 1877.
As a priest, Hopkins served in various parishes in England, and he also taught at University College Dublin. He continued to write poetry throughout his life, but he did not publish any of it during his lifetime.
Poetry
Hopkins's poetry is characterized by its use of alliteration, assonance, and internal rhyme. He also experimented with free verse, and he often used sprung rhythm, a metrical pattern that is based on the natural stresses of speech.
Hopkins's poems often deal with religious themes, but he also wrote about nature, love, and loss. His work is known for its intensity of emotion, and it often explores the conflict between the human desire for beauty and the reality of suffering.
Legacy
Hopkins died of typhoid fever in 1889 at the age of 44. His poetry was not published until 1918, and it was only in the 20th century that he began to be recognized as a major poet. Today, he is considered to be one of the most important poets of the Victorian era, and his work continues to be read and studied around the world.
Here are some of Hopkins's most famous poems:
* "The Wreck of the Deutschland"
* "God's Grandeur"
* "Pied Beauty"
* "As kingfishers catch fire"
* "The Windhover"
* "Inversnaid"
* "Carrion Comfort"
* "Felix Randal"
* "Hurrahing in Harvest"
* "The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo"