Walking with Gerard Manley Hopkins explores the life and poetry of one of the world’s greatest poets, a man whose verse praises the grandeur of God found not only in people but also in the beauty of nature.

"The Walk," a meditation on walking and on the literature of walking, ruminates on this pervasive, even commonplace, modern image. It is not so much an argument as a journey along the path of literature, noting the occasions and settings, the pleasures and possibilities of different types of walking--through the country or city, during day or night, alone or with someone--and the literatures--the poems, essays, stories, novels, and diaries--walking has produced. Jeffrey C. Robinson's discussion is less criticism than appreciation: with an autobiographical bent, he leads the reader through Romantic, modern, and contemporary literature to show us the shared pleasures of reading, writing, and walking.

An analysis of the writing life of the nineteenth-century English poet documents his experiences as a Jesuit priest, his struggles with depression, and the spiritual journey that informed his beliefs. 12,500 first printing.

Gerard Manley Hopkins was not only one of the most gifted Victorian poets, he was a compelling diarist who used his journals for everything from daily to-do lists to the most intimate spiritual self-assessments. This volume represents Hopkins as a man of extremes, both emotionally and psychologically. There are mundane memoranda about neckties to purchase or letters to write, but also exacting revisions of poems. There are entries of quiet rapture, his attentioncaught by the beauty of the natural world. Paintings, sculptures, and works of literature are stringently assessed, his aesthetic principles freely exercised. There are also nightmares relived;undergraduate 'sins' unsparingly recorded; 'signs' of heavenly mercy carefully noted. This is the first unexpurgated edition of all extant diaries. The entries extend from September 1863, during his second term at Oxford, until February 1875, while studying theology as a Jesuit in his beloved Wales, and from February 1884 until July 1885, while Hopkins was living at a 'third remove' in Dublin.

Excellent sample of strikingly original poems includes The Wreck of the Deutschland, "Carrion Comfort," "The Caged Skylark," and more.

Though this book was written with women in mind (there is a section on hiking while pregnant, for example), men will enjoy the ins and outs of proper equipment and how to use it, difficulty level of various mountains, the kinds of terrain a child may or may not be able to handle, and the health and spiritual benefits of walking in the mountains. Addressing both the unrepentant couch potato as well as the absurdly fit, the author prescribes various exercise regimes according to the fitness level of the individual. Subsequent chapters explain map reading, what to wear, what to carry in a backpack, and recommended treks in the U.S., Himalayas, and Europe; a comprehensive appendix lists climbing clubs and rental opportunities.