the book offers a detailed commentary on the poetry of Hopkins, exploring the significance of contemporary cultural issues and the poet's life as Catholic convert and Jesuit priest. Part 1 traces Hopkins's life from his early schooldays, his undergraduate years at Oxford and conversion to Catholicism, to his work as a Jesuit scholar and poet-priest. Part 2, explains the core principles of Hopkins's innovative and challenging poetry, including sections on inscape, instress and sprung rhythm. Part 3, provides a detailed critical commentary on most of the major poems, including The Wreck of the Deutschland, God's Grandeur, The Windhover, Pied Beauty, The Caged Skylark, Hurrahing in Harvest, Felix Randal, Spring and Fall, Inversnaid, the six 'Terrible Sonnets', and That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire. Part 4, explores the history of Hopkins criticism from that of his own contemporaries to twentieth century and current critical approaches. John Gilroy is also the author of Reading Philip Larkin: Selected Poms

In his poetry Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844 89) sought to discover afresh the potentialities of language, and to that end developed his idiosyncratic theories of instress, inscape and sprung rhythm. Hopkins's verse is also informed by his religious beliefs; having converted to the Roman Catholic Church in 1866, he became a Jesuit priest eleven years later. However, his poetry is free from a sense of religious dogma, and instead offers a whole hearted involvement with all aspects of life, a love of nature and a search for a unifying sacramental view of creation. His best known poems include 'The Wreck of the Deutschland', 'The Windhover', 'Pied Beauty', 'Spring and Fall', 'Carrion Comfort' and 'Harry Ploughman'.

'O let them be left, wildness and wet' As Kingfishers Catch Fire is a selection of Gerard Manley Hopkins' incomparably brilliant poetry, ranging from the ecstasy of 'The Windhover' and 'Pied Beauty' to the heart-wrenching despair of the 'sonnets of desolation'. Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions. Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889). Hopkins' Poems and Prose is available in Penguin Classics.

The Escorial - Rosa Mystica - The wreck of the Deutschland - Dublin sonnets - Il Mystico - St Thecla - Moonrise.

Machine generated contents note: Introduction; Part I. Forms of Devotion: 1. Bibles; 2. Prayer; Part II. Models of Faith: 3. The soldier; 4. The martyr; Part III. Last Things: 5. Death and judgement; 6. Heaven and hell