Saint Ursula Academy - Scroll Yearbook (Toledo, OH)

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High Priest of Poetry ECAUSE his Jesuit superior en- couraged Gerard Manley Hopkins to renew his interest in writing, the world was given a great Catholic poet. Asked to write a poem commemor- ating the death of five Franciscan nuns who perished in the Deutschland disaster, Gerard Manley Hopkins 0844-1889j wrote his first great work, The Wreck of the Defzlrrlalaml. While a period of poetic silence lay behind this poem, so also did seven years of study and re- ligious meditation. Hopkins had not neglected his study of poetry. He had taught rhetoric, and devoted considerable time to the prob- lems of prosody. In the poetry he now began to write he created a rhythm which had been haunting him, and which re- sulted in poetry different from any he had ever written. In this new experience he brought an aspect of reality to his work. Hopkins viewed the universe as filled with meaning and significance which gave him an opportunity for ex- pression in an entirely new manner. In his new way of life he found fulfillment in the praise, reverence, and service of God. Father of Modern Verse Accredited with being the father of modern verse, Hopkins has an original- ity and a freshness superior to many of his contemporaries. He cleverly avoided the cliches of Romanticism, he seems by this invention in verse to have over- powered the poetic language of his time. Father Hopkins' poems were not pub- lished during his life, but remained in obscurity until Robert Bridges, sensing their worth, collected and published a first edition of them in 1918, and a sec- ond in 1931. Hopkins was not immedi- ately comprehensible to the reading pub- lic. Often he verged on the mystical. There was an acute feeling of restraint in his approach. Yet the frankness, vigor, and enthusiasm of his writings have ex- erted definite influence on modern poetry. JANET SHIZPIERD '-15 The reader is conscious always of the fact that Hopkins was a priestg thus the encomium, The Priest of Poetry and the Poet of the Priesthood is most fitting. Conversion In the quarter of a century since the first appearance of his works, critics have alternately attacked him as an eccentric and hailed him as a genius. He began his writing before entering Oxford, but while there his works show definitely the influence of the Oxford Movement, as well as the teachings of his professors, Wfalter Pater and Benjamin jowett. About a year after he received his degree from Oxford, Hopkins was converted to Catholicism, and shortly thereafter ap- plied for admission in the Society of Jesus. Filled with gratitude for the gift of faith, he resolved to devote all his time to the exercise of his religious duties. He spent his energy in teaching, preaching, and meditation in scrupulous compliance with the Jesuit rule. He burned all his old manuscripts and re- solved to relinquish his writing. He de- voted his life to the love of God, the love of art, and of scholarship. He studied deeply and read assiduously. He could not acquiesce in the pagan phil- osophy of the nineteenth century. It had been secularized beyond redemption, ex- cept that redemption which could come only from the principle from which Euro' pean art and scholarship had originally sprung-the sanctity of the founders of Christian culture. In Hopkins' deep love of God, he dedicated himself solely to the truths scorned by a pagan world. Hopkins had a passionate love of Christg and during his early religious life the Exerri.re.r of Sf. Igmztiur gave great strength and purpose to his love. The exhortation, Man was created to praise , contained in these same exer- cises, gave him deep inspiration and en- during impetus in the devotion of his religious life. After seven years Hopkins emerged 14 THE SCROLL l 1

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from his retirement a new poet with a new diction, a new form, and a new in- spiration. He then wrote 'Ilia llwierk of lla' lJeffl.IrlIl.uI.l. and although it was his first poem in several years, critics have called It the apex of his work. Its theme is the realization that Christianity is in- tegral and absolute. Ipse, the only one, Christ, King, Head g this line contains the meaning of the entire poem, which is Christ. lt is the story of the Passion and the Redemption reflected in the lives of meng it explains how Christ draws souls to Him through suffering and sacri- fice, heedless of all else but their salva- tion. lt portrays the infinite love of the Crucified, yearning for the return of His love by those beneath the Cross, and it reminds us that submission to Christ is our only true deliverance, The poem closes iII a storm of invocations mount- ing in his majesty of music to the very end. In the Ilwrexi of llve lJc'lll.ltl7lI1I!Ll the poet proclaims the beauty of his vision of the world, seen through a drop of Christ's blood by which everything whatever was turned to scarlet, keeping nevertheless mounted in the scarlet its own color too. New Horizons Indirectly the poem refers to Hopkins himself, 'lille ll recif uf flu' De1ff.I't'lIlt11Itl divided definitely the two periods of Hop- kins' work: between his early verse and his great poetry, between Oxford and the Society of jesus. This new and greater poetry differs from his earlier verse iII far Inore than form and meter. In 'Ilia Il reclf of ilu' lJe.ffl.IrlIl,1ml liather Hop- kins proved that he had advanced to a new vision of the world and of man in which he saw God in all things and all things in God. ln Gmlfi' Giuimlmi' Hopkins proclaims the world of natural beauty as news of Cod. ln its opening lines he represents nature as the reflection of the Creator. This poem shows too the enthusiasm of the lover of nature for the constant ref newal of natural beauty --- daybreak Charged with the grandeur of God. The poet deplores man's use of nature - his failure to employ created things. Truly Gmffi' Gil'.Il1t!L'lll' is representative of Hopkins' great lyric poetry. Nlaisti-I'pIei'e Perhaps the best evaluation of a man's work comes from himself. Hopkins con- sidered 'I'lIe ll imllwI'eI' his masterpiece. He reverently dedicated it to Christ Our Lord. The deep source of his genius is shown in this work coming from the happiness of a soul in sanctifying grace. In the flight of the windhover, the bird doomed to crash in gold vermillionu, Hopkins shows the deep spirituality in which his life was climaxed by his last words, I am so happy, l am so happy! liather Hopkins' devotion was an an- swer to the atheism and the skeptical spirit of an age wavering between a dis- carded religion and a science it feared to accept. To him religion was not a de- partment of lifeg it was its essence. lt is not unusual that his genius was not recognized during his lifetime. That his place among our foremost Catholic poets is established is shown by the excellent eulogies written on the occasion of his centenary. Our Lady ol' l,l'll4'l' Her ctiliu' it lzllfe. Her KQUIPU i.I Irlvile. Her eyes .Ire lrlre. Hel' llfzr .rue liglif. Her lmir ir lll'0It'1l. Her clieelfr till' fair. .Slie Il'L',lI'.l' .I rmII'I1 III lm' l1r.I'lmn.I lmzlr. Slit' l7L'Ill'.l' Illll' lfIl'.IJl'l'.f. Aim' .Inf-,I' llie I.fII'Il. 'lin feel? lllll' lM'tJI'f.f 111 UNL' .Jt'cm'tl. VIRGINIA SAIINII '-ii THE SCROLL 15