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Gerard Manley Hopkins: The Complete Poems (Annotated) by Robert Bridges, Gerard Manley Hopkins
mothwing's review
5.0
I have to admit that I skipped the platonic dialogue. This is a very readable edition of the poems which I had hoped would feature more annotations.
It's hard to overstate my fondness for Gerard Manley Hopkins, since his works both changed the way I see god and helped me regain my will to live when I wanted to die. I love his poetry and how he manages to so tidily corset overwhelming emotions of crisis, despair and belief into sonnets and obscure language.
Many of his poems have formed and welded parts of me into place at different times in my life and stick with me, especially of course his Terrible Sonnets, which made me feel less alone and more hopeful when I was suicidal, and "As kingfishers catch fire", which profoundly touched and influenced me as a struggling Christian.
Of course there are many things that I disagree with as well, his very Victorian (and also very Catholic) views of duty and poems like "The Soldier" don't sit well with my view of a more pacifist Christ at all. Still, he is one must-know-poet, and it's not surprising to me at all that he's en vogue again.
It's hard to overstate my fondness for Gerard Manley Hopkins, since his works both changed the way I see god and helped me regain my will to live when I wanted to die. I love his poetry and how he manages to so tidily corset overwhelming emotions of crisis, despair and belief into sonnets and obscure language.
Many of his poems have formed and welded parts of me into place at different times in my life and stick with me, especially of course his Terrible Sonnets, which made me feel less alone and more hopeful when I was suicidal, and "As kingfishers catch fire", which profoundly touched and influenced me as a struggling Christian.
Of course there are many things that I disagree with as well, his very Victorian (and also very Catholic) views of duty and poems like "The Soldier" don't sit well with my view of a more pacifist Christ at all. Still, he is one must-know-poet, and it's not surprising to me at all that he's en vogue again.
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