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.

This thesis attempts to define Hopkins' use of the word "inscape" in terms of a cultural tradition in which he shares. Inscape is basically a concern for ordering experience in both its temporal and eternal manifestations. Each individual is part of a vast, harmonious whole wherein the parts are related to one another and confront one another with their unique individuality. The order thus envisaged is upheld by God, who sustains relationships and reveals Himself in the communication between man and his world. The order that Hopkins encounters is the same order working through the artistic movement encompassed by the terms Renaissance, Mannerism, and Baroque. The Renaissance artist thought that man could become a part, of that order, using it to reach God, by means of the intellectual contemplation of beauty. The Mannerist challenged his oredecessors' logic, suggesting that man's problems were such as to impede the Neo-Platonic progression: if God is to be reached through the beautiful, the individual who cannot penetrate an ugly reality to ultimate perfection, who cannot rest content with a hypothetical ideal world, will fail to find peace or assurance. The Baroque artist admits the Mannerist's list of grievances, but responds with force and plenitude, believing that the emotional impact of a work of art can carry the will in a positive direction. The Baroque artist feels that God is very present in the material world and may be apprehended there. The basic order includes that material world as a necessary and lasting part of God consistant and continuous revelation of Himself. Michelangelo uses the term concetto much as Hopkins uses the word inscape, though more directly in terms of his art. Part of the ordered whole may be grasped and communicated in the harmonious ordering of the sculpted marble block. Michelangelo achieves his goal by working with Renaissance structures and the Manneristic breakdown of those structures. He resolves the Mannerist's conflicts not by turning to Baroque, but by returning to an expression of the Gothic yearnings of an earlier age. Hopkins is ultimately a Baroque poet, but the Renaissance ordering that must precede the Baroque sensibility is clearly evident in a large portion of his work, as is the disruption of order inherent in Mannerism. What Michelangelo sees as a threat, however, Hopkins sees as a trial of his faith in both God and this world. Michelangelo's retreat, however, serves to clarify Hopkins determination not to retreat. Michelangelo eventually loses the ability to project a concetto, and therefore endeavours to do something less concrete with his medium. Hopkins continually loses his instressing power, but constantly seeks to relate to the wholeness that he knows surrounds him. By postulating a relationship with his environment that demands an ability to meet that environment with an emotional as well as an intellectual stability, he has left himself in a position where often it is only volitional effort that will carry him through any estrangement from his environment. For the sake of his own inscape, as person, priest, and poet, he commits himself to making that effort. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

Gerard Manley Hopkins' particular vision of reality derives from his intense and unique intellectual response to the fact of the Incarnation. In his view, the Incarnation so colors the world that each created thing, by virtue of its selfhood, expresses Christ. Hopkins' apprehension of the integration of the finite and infinite in all things, without the loss or diminution of either, creates his vision of a paradoxical world. The problem examined in this thesis is to what degree such a view of life is reflected in, and by, his poetry. There is no examination of purely verbal paradox, except insofar as it reflects or reveals the poet's vision of a paradoxical reality. In the investigation, Hopkins' letters, in particular, those to Robert Bridges and to Richard Watson Dixon, his early diaries, notebooks and journals, as well as his retreat notes, sermons and other devotional writings have been examined and have yielded valuable information about Hopkins' views of life and poetry. The focus of the investigation, however, has been the poems themselves. It is with these that the study was begun, and to these that it constantly returned. From that study, it became apparent that definite themes recur in Hopkins' poetry. When the poems were grouped according to theme, it was found that certain poems center on natural beauty and man's response to it; others on the idea of sacrifice; still others on the problem of suffering, and yet others on the fact of death. An examination of each of the poems in these groups revealed that Hopkins' poetry is his response and solution to the problems posed by his simultaneous awareness of the apparently contradictory elements in reality. In that group whose theme is mortal beauty emerge the paradoxes of the changing creation revealing the changeless creator, of God's simultaneous immanence in, and transcendence of, his works, and of man's consequent difficult, but necessary, response of attachment to, and detachment from, mortal beauty. From those whose theme is sacrifice emerge the paradoxes of the beauty and the merit of the good which the poet voluntarily, but with difficulty, abjures in his own life, and of the denial of self as the highest fulfilment of self. From those whose theme is the problem of suffering emerge, in one group, the paradox of the reconciliation of God's mastery and his mercy, and in another, of the poet's isolation from, and unity with, God. In the first such group, the reconciliation has been facilitated by a prior struggle and enlightenment of the poet. In the second group, the desdlate sonnets, emerges acceptance through indomitable faith, rather than reconciliation. From the final group, whose theme is death, emerges the paradox of the resurrection. This paradox bring Hopkins full circle, for, in the new life, mortal beauty has become immortal. It seems, then, that it is Hopkins' awareness of the duality of the response imposed on him by his perception of these paradoxes, and his efforts to make that response, which give to his poetry its particular tension and intensity. The poetry is the record of the poet's efforts to explain the inexplicable. Although the chronological and thematic progression of response do not always go hand in hand, in the main, they do. There is a definite progression from the poet's happy and untroubled acceptance of the mystery in "Pied Beauty", through his more difficult, yet none the less fully accepted reconciliation in "Carrion Comfort", through his anguish in the desolate sonnets, to his final ringing cry of faith in "That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire". In his relentless questionings of the mysteries inherent in his views of a paradoxical world, Hopkins refused to surrender either his intellect or his faith. His poetry testifies to both, and each enhances the other. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

Les théories poétiques de l’inscape et du sprung rhythm établies par le poète britannique Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) ont dérouté les critiques des années durant. La plupart d’entre eux se sont appuyés sur les poèmes publiés en quête d’indices quant à la signification de ses théories. Cette thèse approfondit l’analyse mise de l’avant en révélant que la genèse de la théorie de l’inscape provient des notes de Hopkins — alors étudiant de premier cycle — sur le philosophe présocratique Parménide, et est influencée par les commentaires sur l’oeuvre De la nature du philosophe. Un examen des lettres de Hopkins à ses collègues poètes Robert Bridges et Richard Watson Dixon révèle que le sprung rhythm découle de l’inscape, sa théorie de base. La technique du sprung rhythm consiste donc en l’application de l’inscape au schéma métrique de la poésie. Cette étude établit d’abord une définition opérationnelle de chacune de ces théories pour ensuite les appliquer aux manuscrits afin de déterminer dans quelle mesure Hopkins y adhérait et les exploitait lors de la rédaction de deux de ses poèmes canoniques, God’s Grandeur et The Windhover. L’étude s’inscrit ainsi dans le champ de la critique génétique, une approche mise au point en France, particulièrement à l’Institut des textes et manuscrits modernes (ITEM). Ce sont donc sur des oeuvres littéraires françaises ou sur des textes en prose qu’ont porté la majorité des analyses à ce sujet. Suppressions, ajouts, substitutions et constantes entre différentes versions témoignent de ce qu'étaient les priorités de Hopkins dans sa quête pour atteindre l’effet désiré. Par conséquent, cette thèse s’efforce de dévoiler la signification des théories poétiques de Hopkins en établissant leur genèse et leur application respectives dans deux de ses poèmes selon une perspective de critique génétique. Elle contribue également à enrichir la critique génétique en l’appliquant à des oeuvres littéraires écrites en anglais et sous forme de poésie plutôt que de prose. Enfin, son objectif ultime est de raviver l’intérêt pour le poète Hopkins en tant que sujet viable d’étude, et de favoriser l’appréciation de ses prouesses tant comme théoricien poétique que comme poète. / The poetic theories of inscape and sprung rhythm developed by British poet Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-89) have baffled critics for years. Most critics have relied upon the published poems for clues to their significance. This study advances the analysis further by revealing the genesis of the theory of inscape to be Hopkins’ undergraduate notes on the pre-Socratic philosopher Parmenides and is influenced by commentaries on Parmenides’ work “On Nature.” A study of Hopkins’ letters to fellow poets Robert Bridges and Richard Watson Dixon reveals that sprung rhythm emanates from his overarching theory of inscape; sprung rhythm is, thus, the application of inscape to the metrical patterns of poetry. After determining a working definition of both poetic theories, this study applies these terms to the manuscripts to determine to what extent Hopkins’ adhered to and developed the theories when writing two of his canonical poems: “God’s Grandeur” and “The Windhover.” It thus fits in the field of genetic criticism, a critical approach developed in France and centered at the Institut des Textes et Manuscrits Modernes (ITEM). Most analyses conducted have thus been done on French works and to prose. Deletions, additions, and substitutions, as well as the consistencies from one version to another, reveal Hopkins’ priorities as he strove to attain the desired effect. Therefore, this study endeavours to unveil the meaning of Hopkins’ poetic theories by determining their geneses and their application to two of his best known poems, “God’s Grandeur” and “The Windhover, ” through the practice of genetic analysis. It contributes to genetic criticism in applying it to works written in the English language and to poetry rather than prose. The hope is to renew interest in Hopkins as a viable poet to study and to incite further appreciation in his prowess as both poetic theorist and poet.

No description available.

The aim of this thesis is twofold: To examine Hopkins's writings on poetics and to relate these to modern theories of poetic stylistics; and to show, through an examination of two sets of Hopkins sonnets, the ways in which Hopkins's writings on language and poetics are reflected in his verse (Introductory outline, p. 5)

The focus of this study is upon Gerard Manley Hopkins~s literary opinions about the state of affairs of Victorian England regarding its defence, religions, science, politics, the economy, and other concerns. His claim to a legitimate voice lies in the tremendous amount of erudite knowledge he accumulated over the years, on many different subjects, and his classical education. Major focus is on his pristine awareness of the Anglo-Saxons and their language of Old English. Hopkins's unique style of writing poetry and his contribution to Victorian philology is highlighted. The work also deals, in some degree, with his mental state at various periods in his life, and attempts to disclose an overcoming of the anguish and depression evident in the poems. His enduring spirit under the grave swamping of Christianity by destructive discourses is another major theme. / ENGLISH STUDIES / M.A. (ENGLISH)

No description available.

While often assumed, Gerard Manley Hopkins' influence on Dylan Thomas has needed substantiation. By placing the issue of Hopkins' influence on Thomas within critical, historical, and literary contexts, this study explores the issue and demonstrates Hopkins' influence. Summary and assessment of previous critical work on the issue of Hopkins' influence establish the ways in which this study continues, diverges from or completes work done in the past. Evidence from biographical work on Thomas, as well as his letters and prose, outlines his contact with Hopkins' poems. A discussion of Thomas' Welsh background relates his experience of Wales and Welsh prosody to Hopkins' corresponding experiences. The literary context of the issue of Hopkins' influence on Thomas is established by means of a two-part foundation. First, the possible influence of W. B. Yeats, Wilfred Owen, Hart Crane, and James Joyce on Thomas is distinguished from Hopkins' influence. Second, specifically Hopkinsian areas of influence on Thomas are discussed. These areas of influence serve as a critical framework within which six Thomas poems dating from 1934 to 1951 are analyzed.