Gerard Manley Hopkins, selected poems Contents
- As Kingfishers Catch Fire
- Binsey Poplars
- The Blessed Virgin Mary Compared to the Air We Breathe
- Carrion Comfort
- Duns Scotus' Oxford
- God's Grandeur
- Harry Ploughman
- Henry Purcell
- Hurrahing in Harvest
- Inversnaid
- I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark
- Synopsis of I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark
- Commentary on I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark
- Language and tone in I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark
- Structure and versification in I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark
- Imagery and symbolism in I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark
- Themes in I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark
- The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo
- Synopsis of The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo
- Commentary on The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo
- Language and tone in The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo
- Structure and versification in The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo
- Imagery and symbolism in The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo
- Themes in The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo
- The May Magnificat
- My Own Heart, Let Me Have More Pity On
- Synopsis of My Own Heart, Let Me Have More Pity On
- Commentary on My Own Heart, Let Me Have More Pity On
- Language and tone in My Own Heart, Let Me Have More Pity On
- Structure and versification in My Own Heart, Let Me Have More Pity On
- Imagery and symbolism in My Own Heart, Let Me Have More Pity On
- Themes in My Own Heart, Let Me Have More Pity On
- No Worst, There is None
- Patience, Hard Thing!
- Pied Beauty
- The Sea and the Skylark
- Spelt from Sibyl's Leaves
- Spring
- Spring and Fall
- St. Alphonsus Rodriguez
- The Starlight Night
- That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the Comfort of the Resurrection
- Synopsis of That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire
- Commentary on That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire
- Language and tone in That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire
- Structure and versification in That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire
- Imagery and symbolism in That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire
- Themes in That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire
- Thou Art Indeed Just, Lord
- Tom's Garland
- To Seem the Stranger
- To What Serves Mortal Beauty
- The Windhover
- The Wreck of the Deutschland
- Beauty and its purpose
- The beauty, variety and uniqueness of nature
- Christ's beauty
- Conservation and renewal of nature
- God's sovereignty
- The grace of ordinary life
- Mary as a channel of grace
- Nature as God's book
- Night, the dark night of the soul
- Serving God
- Suffering and faith
- The temptation to despair
- The ugliness of modern life
- Understanding evil in a world God has made
The ugliness of modern life
This theme is linked to that of the Conservation and renewal of nature. The three poems which focus specifically on it each give slightly different insights into it.
God's Grandeur
God's Grandeur sees the spiritual implications of the ugliness caused by industrialisation. Workers no longer ‘feel' Nature directly, and so lose touch with its God-filled presence. This means their own natural spirituality dries up and they ‘no longer reck his rod'.
The Sea and the Skylark
In The Sea and the Skylark, Hopkins also contrasts the way Nature should be with what man has created. Both the sea and the skylark represent freedom and beauty. Man can only create trivial townscapes, where the inscape of Nature is lost. Far from progressing in an evolutionary sense to something higher, humanity seems to be moving back to the primal, undifferentiated slime. Again, Hopkins stresses the spiritual dimension of the theme.
Duns Scotus' Oxford
In Duns Scotus' Oxford, the idea of borders and tradition is emphasised. In the past, townscapes have been organically formed and thus have formed part of the inscape of Nature. One of the features of this is the defined border between town and country. Modern life has broken this down with faceless suburbs. Suburbs featured for the first time in the Victorian era, as rapid urbanisation led to unchecked and unregulated building outside town limits. This growth is ‘graceless', where the term ‘grace' means not only natural grace, but divine grace as well, Hopkins believes that this is not God's order.
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