And for all this, nature is never spent;
   There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
   Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs--
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
   World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

— from Gerard Manley Hopkin's "God's Grandeur"

Scarcely published in his too-brief lifetime, nonconformist poet and priest Gerard Manley Hopkins is celebrated today as one of anglophone poetry’s most passionate, dazzling, and disciplined technicians—a conductor of the English language’s distinctive tones and textures like none before or since.

Unrestrained by the prosodic norms of his Victorian contemporaries, Hopkins pushed the poetic medium to heights of ecstasy in praise of God’s immanence in nature, as well as to “cliffs of fall / frightful, sheer, no-man fathomed” in his profoundly moving anatomies of desolation and despair.
In this three-session course, we will explore how Hopkins’s personal history as a Jesuit convert and gradual exile from his prosperous High Anglican family—as well as his internal conflicts between earthly desire and spiritual longing, abandoned hopes of becoming a painter, deep study of the medieval theologian Duns Scotus, and readings of Keats, Rossetti, Ruskin, and others—informs his innovative poetic work.

Above all, we will engage with that extraordinary work (including a few excerpts from his letters and notebooks) as attentively as possible, attuned to what it says and how it says it, marveling at its extraordinary sonic and visual effects, and finding in its spiritual, ecological, and personal commitments a source of inspiration—and a model of hope—through our own complicated times.

Class meets from 2:30–3:45 p.m. Thursdays, September 18, 25 and October 2.

This live, virtual class is structured to encourage active participation. Registrants will receive a Zoom link one week prior to each session, one day prior to each session, and the morning of the session. Recordings will be made available within forty-eight hours and will remain available for thirty days.

Scholarship applications must be submitted by  Wednesday, September 3, at 5 p.m. ET. 

For information on how to register, how to receive the member discount, how to apply for a scholarship, how to access recordings and course materials, and more, please visit our FAQ page.