Gerard Manley Hopkins

A detailed intrduoduction to and commentary on the poetry of Hopkins exploring the significance of contemporary cultural issues and the poet's life as Catholic convert and Jesuit priest.. In this exemplary study guide John Gilroy traces Hopkins's life from his early schooldays his undergraduate years at Oxford and conversion to Catholicism to his work as a Jesuit scholar and poet-priest; explains the core principles of Hopkins's innovative and challenging poetry including sections on inscape instress and sprung rhythm; provides a detailed critical commentary on most of the major poems: The Wreck of the Deutschland God's Grandeur The Starlight Night As Kingfishers Spring The Sea and the Skylark In the Valley of the Elwy The Windhover Pied Beauty The Caged Skylark Hurrahing in Harvest The Lantern out of Doors Duns Scotus's Oxford Binsey Poplars Henry Purcell The Candle Indoors Felix Randal Spring and Fall Inversnaid Ribblesdale To What Serves Mortal Beauty Patience the six 'Terrible Sonnets' Spelt from Sibyl's Leaves Harry Ploughman Tom's Garland That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire 'Thou art indeed just' 'To R.B.'; and explores the history of Hopkins criticism from that of his own contemporaries to twentieth century and current critical approaches.John Gilroy took his BA at the University of Newcastle and his MPhil at the University of Warwick. He is co-author of A Commentary on Wordsworth's Prelude Books 1-5 (London: RKP 1983) and has contributed to various literary publications. He was senior lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University Cambridge from 1974 until 2006 and is a course director for the University of Cambridge's residential and international programmes. He is the author of a best-selling study of Philip Larkin in this series.. .