The Poetry of John Hopkins

The poetry of Hopkins features an absolute conclusiveness about God in contrast to Tennyson’s more tentative desires. Tennyson allows doubt to be suspended over his verse whereas Hopkins is more assertive. As a poet Hopkins contrasts eminently with Tennyson in that he is minimalist and private whilst Tennyson is profuse and public. Unlike Tennyson he was regarded as unrepresentative of the Victorian Era due to both his religious beliefs and original style of poetry. However, like Tennyson he was affected by a personal crisis as well as the conflicting thoughts and values of the era.

Hopkins central conflict is between his religious beliefs and poetic ability; his religion reflected the balance of his “ascetic and aesthetic impulses.” Hopkins felt his attraction to poetry would prevent him being fully dedicated to his Jesuitical beliefs. Hopkins burnt his poetry which portrays contempt towards his own ‘inscape’. Hopkins internally attempts to resolve the conflicting thoughts of the Victorian age. He appreciated the conflicts of the age and defends nature’s fragility in response to industrialisation and its destruction “I wished to die and not see the inscapes of the world destroyed anymore.” portraying his defence. He was engrossed by nature which he saw as the epitome of God’s beauty yet he finds his personnel conflicts led with his faith in that same God hard to resolve. Michael Sprinker believed the crisis was within his poetry “struggling valiantly against the ebbing of his poetic energies.” His ‘terrible sonnets’ portray his suffering and sense of desertion from God rather than simply the loss of creative zest. Hopkins unlike his contemporaries resolved the conflicting thoughts and values by the revival of his faith rather than rejecting the belief of God as a whole. His nature poetry is therefore not cast in doubt but instead full of strong faith which reflects his aestheticism. His true conflict ensues where ‘the priest confronts the poet’.

Hopkins use of...