A Commentary on the Sonnets of G.M. Hopkins

By Peter Milward

In the tradition of Shakespeare, Spenser, Sidney, Donne, and Milton, Jesuit poet Gerald Manley Hopkins wrote a series of metaphysical and religious, personal and descriptive sonnets from 1877 until his death in 1889. Here, Father Milward presents all 31 Hopkins sonnets followed by line-by-line commentary, often incorporating Hopkins' own criticisms and letters.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0829404945
• ISBN13: 9780829404944
• Release Date: January 1985
• Publisher: Loyola Pr
• Length: 200 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 0.8" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

Illuminating and overlooked MAJOR poet

I had a professor tell me once that it was not T.S. Eliot who was the father of modern poetry but that Eliot and Pound took inspiration not just from the metaphysical poets but also Hopkins. Hopkins is very, very hard to read (at least for me) because of the many, many layers of meaning (historical, linguistical, religious, intertextual references, "sprung rhyme", etc.) compressed in such short time. He is a all-around poet. He is a master of form and technique as well as imagination. His poems are of a religious focus mostly. And I'll say this, he is such a wonderful poet that after reading his sonnets, despite being turned off by church at an early age, I walked away from the book with an illuminated respect of the basic and raw ideas of Christ. BUT REMEMBER, what is most important is the craft of the poems. This book is a great commentary and Peter Milward, S.J., has studied Hopkins extensively. It is short, this book is to the point but doesn't leave anything key out. It's format is great. After each Hopkins sonnet is a commentary on the sonnet and provides immediate response. After reading this book, a whole new world of Hopkins will open to you, and perhaps this will lead you to other poets, both modern and metaphysical and even Old English, since Hopkins draws from the poetic styles of many period of English verse.