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hopkins

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This essay by Miles Mathis argues that the poem “The Wreck of the Deutschland” by Gerard Manley Hopkins, written in 1875, should have been a pivotal moment in the history of poetry but was largely ignored due to two main factors. The first is timing; the poem was a revolutionary expansion of poetic technique, but it emerged during a period of artistic contraction and the dawn of Modernism, which favored simplification and deconstruction. The second factor is the poem’s content, which was perceived as horrifying by many readers, overshadowing its technical brilliance.

Mathis recounts his own initial revulsion to the poem’s content, but after re-evaluating it as a new “architecture,” he realized its immense technical merit. He contends that Hopkins, by accident, broke free from 2500 years of poetic convention, inventing a “new richer multiverse” of meter and language. Mathis believes Hopkins was generations ahead of his time, a fact solidified by the poem’s delayed recognition, with the British Poet Laureate only starting to grasp its significance years later.

The essay delves into Hopkins’ tragic personal life, suggesting his death at 44 may have been from a broken heart rather than typhoid. Hopkins, described as shy and small, grew up near John Keats, in a religious and wealthy family. His life took a turn at Oxford when he fell deeply in love with Digby Dolben, a 17-year-old Eton student. This unrequited love and the discovery of his own homosexuality deeply affected Hopkins. His confessor forbade him from seeing Dolben, and after Dolben’s planned conversion to Catholicism and subsequent accidental drowning at 19, Hopkins was driven to despair.

Following a path similar to Van Gogh, Hopkins’ idealism and naivete led him to convert to Catholicism and intend to become a Jesuit priest. To suppress his feelings, he renounced poetry and art, burning his existing work and vowing not to write without permission. For seven years, he wrote only religious hymns. His opportunity to write again came in 1875 after a shipwreck in Thames harbor, which prompted his superior to ask him to write a religious poem. This poem was “The Wreck of the Deutschland.”

Mathis criticizes the poem’s religious content, not the faith itself, but its specific expression, which he believes obscured the poem’s technical innovation. He highlights the poem’s complex meter, which deviates from traditional forms, and its use of alliteration and consonance. He contrasts Hopkins’ technical mastery with what he perceives as the superficiality of poets like Digby Dolben, whose work he finds “same-and-tame” and lacking in depth, published on sites like Allpoetry.com.

Mathis further argues that Hopkins’ innovation in meter, termed “sprung meter,” is fundamentally different from free verse and far more musical than previous poetic forms. He criticizes misinterpretations found on Wikipedia, particularly the comparison to Robinson Jeffers. He also touches on other poets and musicians who he believes approached but did not fully grasp Hopkins’ innovation, including Dylan Thomas, Leonard Cohen, and Joni Mitchell.

The essay analyzes specific stanzas of “The Wreck of the Deutschland,” demonstrating Hopkins’ innovative use of rhyme and meter to mirror the narrative. It also examines a later poem, “Inversnaid”, to show Hopkins’ continued development and mastery of his unique poetic style, which Mathis believes created a “new poetic line a thousand times more musical” and opened up possibilities for centuries of future poets. Mathis concludes by suggesting that the intense pressure and suffering in Hopkins’ life were crucial in forging his artistic genius, a concept he relates to his own experiences growing up in Amarillo and Lubbock, TX rather than in more privileged artistic centers like New York or London.

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