Introduction:
Hopkins as a religious-minded poet believed in the presence of God in every object of nature. Although Hopkins was troubled by deep spiritual uncertainties and endured intense inner suffering because of them, his faith ultimately overcame these doubts. He was a passionate believer in God and in the divine nature of Christ, and his temperament was marked by a strong ascetic impulse.
Hopkins lived a life of strict discipline and high moral seriousness. His poetry repeatedly calls upon the God to whom he had devoted himself in service. From this perspective, Humphrey House’s assertion that Hopkins was not a mystic and that his poems reveal no sense of God’s immediate and personal presence appears to be entirely contrary to the reality.
His Aspiration for an Ascetic Life:
Gerard Manley Hopkins’s poem “The Habit of Perfection” clearly reflects his strong inclination toward asceticism. He composed this poem at the young age of twenty-two, a time when his commitment to spiritual discipline was already deeply rooted. Through the poem, Hopkins offers a total self-surrender to the ascetic ideal.
In the opening two stanzas, he refers to the restraint he intended to place upon himself, particularly with regard to writing poetry. He resolves to renounce any poetic expression that might conflict with his spiritual goals, choosing instead the discipline of silence, which he considers essential for inner reflection and communion with God.
Hopkins further emphasizes his ascetic resolve by rejecting all forms of sensual pleasure. He insists that the eyes should seek only the “uncreated light,” symbolising the divine creative power of God’s intellect. The palate is to renounce the enjoyment of wine and accept fasting instead.
Likewise, the sense of smell is limited to the sacred fragrance of church incense, while the feet are dedicated solely to walking the path that leads to the church. In this renunciation of worldly comforts, poverty is embraced as the poet’s chosen companion, reinforcing his complete dedication to a life of spiritual austerity.
His major religious poem: “The Wreck of the Deutschland” is his great religious poem. In the poem the poet does not mean to mourn the wreck or the loss of human lives or even to present a narrative of events. His aim is to give us a picture of his own spiritual vicissitudes and to interpret the shipwreck as a revelation of God, the poem opens as:
“Thou mastering me
God! giver of breath and bread;
X X X
Lord of living and dead;
Thou hast bound bones and veins in me,
fastened me flesh,
And after it almost unmade, what with dread,
Thy doing and dost thou touch me afresh!”
God has made and also unmade him, and over him he feels God’s finger and finds Him: “Over again I feel thy finger and find thee.” Then the poet recalls the spiritual stress and strain he has undergone and God’s grace which he has achieved.
He sees God “under the world’s splendour and wonder” and he greets God wherever he recognizes Him in the world around him. He, then speaks of the birth of Christ and the ardent desire of the faithful to worship “the hero of Cavalry”. “Be adored among men. God”, says the poet, adding “Thou art lightning and love, I found it, a winter and warm.”
His Attitude towards Nature:
In 1877, Hopkins composed several poems centered on Nature, reflecting his deep engagement with the natural world. His outlook was strongly shaped by the ideas of the medieval philosopher Duns Scotus, particularly the principle of individuation and the notion of “thisness”—the unique quality that makes each object distinct from all others. Hopkins believed that this individuality in creation forms a vital link between the created world and God.
Through his poetry, he seeks to reconcile contrasts and opposites, discovering harmony within diversity. This realization of unity becomes a source of profound delight for him, a joy vividly celebrated in his poem “Pied Beauty.”
“Glory be to God for dappled things—
For skies of couple – colour as a brinded cow …”
In his nature poetry, Hopkins successfully reconciles two aspects of his personality: the artist deeply responsive to sensory beauty and the passionate devotee of Catholic faith. These poems consistently suggest that Nature is permeated by a God of boundless beauty and benevolence, and they affirm the redemption of humanity from death through faith in Christ.
Diction in Nature – poems:
His nature poems are composed in modern, everyday English, enriched by a vocabulary that blends dialect, technical terms, and many freshly coined compounds. The diction may at times appear strange or even grotesque, yet it consistently brims with energy and force. He draws upon the full range of the language instead of restricting himself to the narrow stock of words and structures traditionally regarded as suitable for poetry.
His idiom avoids both the bland, standardized speech of industrial urban England and the self-conscious archaism characteristic of Victorian “Parnassian” verse.
“The Windhover” is one of Gerard Manley Hopkins’s best-known nature poems. In this sonnet, Hopkins describes his vision of a kestrel (or falcon) soaring through the air, and the bird gradually becomes a symbol of the splendour and harmony of the natural world. Through a sudden and striking shift, this natural beauty is linked to the spiritual glory of Christ’s self-sacrifice.
At the same time, the kestrel’s flight reflects the poet’s own artistic sensitivity, while also suggesting a parallel with the severe discipline and renunciation of the priestly vocation he has embraced.
A critic further divides Hopkins’s poetry into three broad groups: first, poems that directly express his religious faith; second, poems that appear independent of religious belief; and third, poems that give voice to spiritual uncertainty and doubt.
The first category:
The poems belonging to this category are inferior work. These poems are “Barnfloor and Winepress”, “Nondum”, “Easter”, “Ad Mariam” and “Rosa Mystica” etc. Two poems of this category — “Heaven Haven” and “The Habit of Perfection” are really exquisite. “The Wreck of the Deutschland” has been considered by this critic to be a poem of fear and submission rather than of the love of God.
The second category:
The poems such as “Penmaen Pool”, “The Starlight Night”, “Spring”, “The Sea and the Skylark”, “The Windhover”, “Pied Beauty” and “The Caged Skylark”, etc. belong to the second category. Here the poet is aware of the objective beauty of the world. His dreaminess and sensuality both are revealed in these poems.
The third category:
The poems belonging to this category are full of gloom, and awful in anguish. These poems are called terrible sonnets. Here is absence of spiritual complacency in these sonnets. His poems of this category are no longer full of hope and joy; they express misery and despair.
In these poems the poet does not exult in the presence of God in Nature or in man’s deliverance from mortality by divine aid. In these poems God is shown as indifferent to the poet’s sufferings, almost as an enemy. In “Carrion Comfort” he writes:
“But ah, but O thou terrible, why wouldst
Thou rude on me
Thy wring – world right foot rock! Lay
a lionlimb against me ?”
Conclusion:
The sincerity of Hopkins’ thinking led him to an originality of expression. He rejected the ready-made techniques of contemporary poetics. His originality in this respect is innovations into metre make his poems difficult to understand.