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"These secondaire" submitted to a Sorbonne jury in May 1958 for the 'doctorat d'État.'" / "Select bibliography of Robert Bridges": p. [171]-178.

"These secondaire" submitted to a Sorbonne jury in May 1958 for the 'doctorat d'État.'" / "Select bibliography of Robert Bridges": p. [171]-178.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1959. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 396-403).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1970. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Since 1930, critics have given wide attention to the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Some of these critics have discussed the nature element in Hopkins’ poetry; but, generally, they have considered the nature imagery as one of the less important elements of Hopkins' work, confining their criticism to general statements, or limiting their discussion to one, or to a very few, of Hopkins' poems. This thesis attempts to go beyond these generalities. By a thorough investigation of Hopkins' use of nature, it attempts to show that nature imagery constitutes one of the major unifying elements of his poetry. Special attention will be given to the discussion of the "terrible sonnets" whose nature imagery may be said to synthesize the anguish of soul which prompted the poet to write these sonnets. Three groups of poems exemplify nature imagery as a unifying element in Hopkins' poetry: Hopkins' simple nature poetry, his poetry of praise, and the "terrible sonnets." In his simple nature poetry, Hopkins, by expressing his concept of the beauty of nature, allows the reader to share this vision of beauty with him. In the poetry of praise, Hopkins uses nature imagery to express one consistent theme, or "underthought"-- the grandeur of God and man's consequent duty of praise. The "terrible sonnets" celebrate God's power, His justice and His mercy. These seven poems of poignant beauty are Hopkins' expression of the terrible sufferings of the spiritual "nights" in which the only source of hope is God's mercy. The nature imagery in each of these groups is closely connected with Hopkins' poetic theories of inscape and instress. Hopkins considered that the essence of the object is to be found in its individual distinctiveness. Closely connected with the teachings of Duns Scotus, this philosophy provided Hopkins with a basis for his theories of inscape and instress, the key concepts of Hopkins' poetry. In inscape, the intuitive glance which follows the sensuous perception of the object allows the beholder to see its individually distinctive essence. The word "instress" is used by Hopkins to mean two different principles. At times, "instress" is used to express the principle of actuality of the object; at other times, to define the total effect which an individual inscape produces upon the one who sees it. Hopkins' poetic techniques are a natural result of his theories of inscape and instress. In an effort to express inscape accurately he sought to reproduce in his poetry exactly what he saw and what he heard. He called into play all the resources of language, of nature imagery, of poetic techniques and of prosody which he could command; and he produced a poetry which is at once dynamic, original, and beautiful. An understanding of Hopkins' theology of nature is also basic to the correct interpretation of his poetry. To Hopkins, all nature is a manifestation, an "utterance" of God; each separate object "utters" God in its own individual way. This sacramental view of nature was the result of Hopkins' unique ability to see things at once on both a natural and a supernatural level. He expresses the "underthought" of God, or of man's relations to God, by means of the "overthought" of nature. Nature imagery is, therefore, one of the principled unifying elements of Hopkins' poetry. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

Thèse--Paris, 1958. / Bibliography; p. [673]-709.

The aim of this thesis has been to make an accurate assessment of the developments in Hopkins criticism up until 1970, with overriding emphasis on perceptions of his relation to poetic tradition. The chosen methodology involves a chapter by chapter discussion of Hopkins' perceived relation to individual poets or groups of poets. Generally, each chapter opens with an examination of Hopkins' published correspondence, scrutinizing his own criticism of the poet or poets in question, and proceeds in a chronological survey of the ways in which critics and reviewers have related him to the predecessor in question. Material covered in the thesis includes major published works on Hopkins; articles and reviews in scholarly periodicals, as well as more popular journals and some newspapers; and other critical works where Hopkins receives some degree of attention. The 'cutoff' point of this study is 1970, although a final chapter has been appended with a less detailed survey of the developments from 1970 to the present day. On certain occasions, I have ventured to investigate more fully some areas of Hopkins' literary genetics that seem not to have received the attention they deserve. In general, however, the focus of the thesis is upon the perceptions of the critics, and attempts are made to assess the ways in which Hopkins' fluctuating critical standing has altered these perceptions and vice versa. One of the most frequently recurring demands has been the need to try and determine why Hopkins has been related to different poets and different poetic traditions at different times. To provide a more 'three-dimensional' perspective, two chapters are devoted to exploring the ways in which Hopkins has been perceived as an influence on twentieth century poetry, in general terms, and in specific cases. In conclusion, a 'map' of the territory of Hopkins' criticism charting the perceived relations between his oeuvre and poetic tradition is proposed. And, with a necessary emphasis on the provisional (particularly with the post-1970 study taken into account), some suggestions are made for new directions in this area of study.

This study attempts to correlate two facts about Gerard Manley Hopkins: that he was an avid musician, who theorised about and composed music; and that his poetry is characterised by its highly complex, evocative sounds and by its relation of form to meaning, sound to sense. This study is an attempt to prove that Hopkins is a "musical" poet in a specific and literal sense--that his musical knowledge and interests influenced his poetry in specific and discernible ways, making his work "musical" in a sense that other poetry of his age is not (or to an extent that other poetry is not), and resulting in much of what we consider to be characteristic in his verse. The study is divided into two parts, the first (I-III) analysing the role music plays in his theoretical writings, the second (IV-VI) tracing these musical influences through to the musical and poetic art itself. In Part One, Chapter I presents Hopkins the musician, the biographical details and philosophical background behind his musical interest; Chapter II relates this to Hopkins as priest and theologian, demonstrating music's role as central to his Scotus-based position; Chapter III then shows this musical philosophy in more detail in his theories of language and art, resulting in an ideal art of song epitomised by the art of Hopkins' favourite composer, Henry Purcell. Part Two then looks at Hopkins' art itself, shown as following this Purcellian musical ideal: Chapter IV differentiates the requirements of songs from those of poetry, and demonstrates the particular aims and techniques of Hopkins' own songs; Chapter V reveals principles of musical or song-structure behind Hopkins' concepts of sprung rhythm and other characteristic poetic devices; finally, Chapter VI analyses the poems to discover their radically musical nature. The study concludes with a brief question on the nature of "the music of poetry" generally.