Poems and Prose of Gerard Manley Hopkins

Poems and Prose of Gerard Manley Hopkins by Gerard Manley Hopkins, SJ, selected with an introduction and notes by W H Gardner, 217 pages

"I thought how sadly beauty of inscape was unknown and buried away from simple people and yet how near at hand it was if they had eyes to see it and it could be called out everywhere again..." 

So Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote in his journal on July 19th, 1872.  Much of his poetic - and, indeed, prose - output can be explained in these terms, lending us his eyes to see the "beauty of inscape".  Inscape is Hopkins' own term for individual distinctiveness, the shining forth of the inner nature of a thing through its external characteristics.  The inscape is created and maintained by an instress, the Power behind the form, a Power that is also a Person.  The inscape, then, is, by its beauty, a path to God, and in his poetry a beautiful creation speaks eloquently of its Creator.

Hopkins' poems were meant to be read aloud ("you must not slovenly read it with your eyes but with your ears"), so it is helpful that this volume includes the author's own preface explaining his use of rhythm.  This volume includes a good deal of his prose writing, from journal entries to sermons, which are, sadly, not as remarkable as his poetry.  His poetry alone, however, is enough to establish him among the greats.