 Hello fellow followers of Christ and welcome to the show that introduces you to the men and women behind history's greatest works of literature. Come along every week as we explore these renowned authors, the times and genre in which they wrote, why scholars praise their writing and how we as Catholics should read and understand their works. I'm Joseph Pierce and this is The Authority. Hello, I'm Joseph Pierce and welcome to this episode of The Authority where we'll be looking this week at one of the greatest poets who's ever lived. That's the great Jesuit poet Gerab Mande Hopkins. And I'm going to say quite a lot about why he's so important, why he's so brilliant, why everybody should know him, not just Catholics, but I've got to give a brief chronology of his life, some of the basic facts of his life first. So we've got who he is out of the way, so to speak, and then we'll worry about why he's so important. So he's born on the 28th of July in 1844 at Stratford on Avon, sorry not Stratford on Avon, that's where Shakespeare was born, Stratford LeBeau in Essex. It's actually really now since then has been completely swallowed up by the enormous monster known as the London Connovation, so it's just part of East London now, but it was back in 1844, still a village on the edge of London. So that's where he's born 1844 and 1845 was both the Irish potato famine, which we've talked about somewhat in our episode on the authority of St John Henry Newman, but that is exactly what we're talking about now because in 1845 was the Irish potato famine, but also the conversion of John Henry Newman and the importance of that to the Catholic cultural revival we've already discussed, but it was specifically important to John Manny Hopkins as we shall see even though he was only one year old when Newman was receding the church. In 1847, when he is only three years old, when Charlotte Bronte's novel Jane Eyre is published and the same year Emily Bronte's novel Wuthering Heights was published, we discussed both of those in the recent episode. In 1863, he enters Balliol College in Oxford to pursue his bachelor's degree, his undergraduate degree. This is also the college at which Hillaire Baloch would study, but somewhat later, Baloch was actually not even born at this point. In 1864, so a year after Hopkins' arrival at Badywell College, Oxford, John Henry Newman publishes his spiritual autobiography, if you want to call it that, his conversion story, Apologia Provita Sua, which would have a very profound impact on English culture in general and on Hopkins in particular, because two years after that Hopkins as an undergraduate is received into the Catholic Church by none other than Saint John Henry Newman himself. So this great poet is received into the church by a great saint and poet. In 1867, he graduates from Oxford University with first-class honours and he teaches for eight months at Newman's Oratory School in Birmingham. But then in 1868, he resolves to become a Catholic priest and specifically a Jesuit. This causes a rift in his family, his parents are devout Anglicans but very anti-Catholic and they never really forgive him for becoming a Catholic and then training for the priesthood and specifically training for the Jesuit priesthood. The Jesuits were the part of the church that those who were knee-jerk in their anti-Catholicism were most prejudiced against. So he begins training for the Jesuit priesthood in 1868. In 1872, he discovers the work of the Medieval Franciscan philosopher, Don Scotus, and he says, from this time I was flushed with a new enthusiasm. We will be talking about the importance of the philosophy of John Don Scotus presently. In 1889, he starts a year of a spiritual tree, contracts typhoid and dies on the 8th of June, 1889. So it's still only 44 years old, so tragically young. And this is the thing about Hopkins, which is very important, is during his lifetime, virtually none of his poetry was published. So he was completely unknown outside of his small group of friends. And the first edition of his poetry would not be published until just at the end of World War I. In 1918, when they were published by an Oxford University Press edition edited by his friend, the poet Robert Bridges. So I often say that Hopkins was ahead of his time. And I always qualify that because to say that someone's ahead of his time is usually something to say tritely, and it really means that somebody is fashionable, that someone is up to date. And if someone's up to date, we can be fairly sure that fairly soon they'll be out of date. Because as C.S. Lewis said, that fashions are always coming and going, but mostly going. In other words, if you're just up to date, you can be guaranteed to be out of date fairly quickly. But Hopkins was ahead of his time in a very real measurable way. Because during his time, his poetry was inaccessible to the readership. Even his friends, such as Robert Bridges, the poet and the other Catholic convert poet Coventry Patmore, they considered Hopkins to be poetry to be bits of brilliance, but ultimately unreadable. I think it was I come in with whether it was Bridges or Patmore who said that Hopkins's poetry is like priceless gems embedded in impracticable quartz. So the gems of brilliance in the midst of sort of this stuff that you can't even get to get beneath. So why is it that this person who can't be read even by his friends during his own lifetime during the 1870s and 1880s should become one of the most popular poets of the 20th century, and not just one of the most popular but one of the most celebrated as being modern as doing new things as being avant-garde, the two giants of modern poetry in the 20th century or T.S. Eliot and Germanic Hopkins. But the latter wasn't even, didn't even survive to see the 20th century. So he's a modern poet who's probably 40 years after his death. That is authentically being ahead of his time. So why? What is it about Hopkins which was so new, so modern, so adventurous, so avant-garde? Well, not surprisingly, we've talked to previous episodes in previous episodes of The Authority about how the various intellectual and cultural movements play leapfrog because we can't create anything ex nihilo. We can't create from nothing. We have to create from other things already exist. Only God can create from nothing. We have to take things already here and do things with them. Therefore, if we don't like a particular time, a particular period, we can leapfrog over and find something earlier, which is more conducive to what we like. So a large part of the Renaissance, sorry, the Renaissance and the Enlightenment was playing leapfrog over Christendom over the Middle Ages, particularly, but Christendom in general, and rediscovering classical antiquity, pre-Christian Greece, pre-Christian Rome, paganism. Whereas the Neo medievalists, the Romantics who wanted to to rebel, react against the empiricism of the anti-Christian Enlightenment, played leapfrog over the whole period of the late Renaissance and the Enlightenment and rediscovered the Middle Ages, and hence various types of Neo medievalism. Well, Hopkins was doing something similar. He was also playing leapfrog. What was dynamic about his poetry was the dynamism of orthodoxy and tradition, which led to an inspired innovation. So he takes old ideas. And if you like, does new things with them. So what are these new things? And let's look at them one by one. So basically, the three concepts we want to understand what was so new and radical and revolutionary as perceived by the 20th century about Hopkins. One was sprung rhythm. The other was escape. And the third is in stress. So these are technical terms, don't be intimidated by them. I'm going to hopefully explain very, very simply what they are. So we'll begin with sprung rhythm. So from the time of the Renaissance, even a little bit earlier, the poetry was very much in the form of poetry was was normally very regular in terms of meter and rhyme, certain certain number of syllables per line, a certain rhyme schemes. And although Hopkins did normally follow fairly strict rhyme schemes, he did not follow strict metrics. The number of syllables in his lines varied, breaking breaking the rules. So for instance, octo syllabic versus eight syllables per line. So not to say that big tetrameter has eight syllables per line for beats per line. And certainly Hopkins could do that if we have a look at the habit of perfection, one of his play, one of his poems. This is the form that this is the regular conventional form that most poets are writing in he could do it and doesn't do it well. So I'll just read the first answer. Elected silence sing to me and beat upon my walled ear, pipe me to pleasure pastures still and be the music that I care to hear. Alright, so this is a regular rhythm, right? There's eight syllables per per line, there's four beats for per line. So that's that was conventional rhyme. But but Hopkins broke from that this sprung rhythm, where it was not about the number of syllables which can vary. It's about the number of stresses, the number of of syllables on which we laid stress to create the sprung rhythm. And the punctuation is used to interrupt the flow, slowing it down. The emphasis on stressing certain syllables not counting them, imitates this Hopkins says this imitates the rhythm of speech. There's a music in speech that we don't think about. So for instance, we don't speak like this. I am saying to you now something in monotone. We don't speak like that. Thanks be to God. Now we speak with a rhythm, we have intonation. There's a singing involved in the in the music of the human voice human speech. So he invokes this in the organization of stresses. But he also talks about it, it's reflecting the the the rhythm of traditional nursery rhymes. So for instance, three blind mice, three blind mice. See how they run. See how they run. They all ran after the farmer's wife. Okay, so you see the number of syllables varies three blind mice is only three syllables. Three blind mice, three blind mice, three syllables. See how they run four syllables. They all ran after the farmer's wife. I count those they all run after the farmer's wife nine syllables. But it's following just three rhythms per line. So he's he's using these different ways of conveying meter within within poetry. This is also very influenced by Welsh poetry. He learned the Welsh language when he was studying for the Jesuit priesthood and fell very much in love with with with Welsh poetry in the Welsh language, but also Anglo-Saxon poetry. Anglo-Saxon poetry is all about certain stressed syllables, not about a certain, the number of syllables per line. He also uses sound very much as music. And of course, it's used by other poets, but he does it to an exceptional degree. Some people that might not like Hopkins might say an excessive degree. So he uses alliteration, the repetition of certain consonants, assonance, the repetition of certain vowel sounds on a matapia using words that sound like the thing they describe. So all of these things conveying the music of his poetry. So part one thing about this, he says that his poetry should not be read, but should be heard and spoken. So there's something that that's sensual, that needs to be incarnated in it, that the music of the poem is such that needs to be heard. We need to not just read it, that somehow when when when it's read aloud, there's something incarnational happens, the words become flesh, so to speak. Alright, so that's sprung rhythm. And when I want to talk about escape, and this is where Don Skotis comes in, this medieval philosopher, Franciscan, during the Golden Age of Scholasticism, so in the same century as as St. Thomas Aquinas, for instance. Now, I know that I've had many discussions with Tomas about this. And I'm not going to not least, because I don't think I would do a very good job of it, I'm not going to try to go into the depths of what does does goto says was teaching or what he wasn't teaching. What I'm going to do is to describe to you how it influenced Hopkins. But Keith, the key thing is that that Don Skotis taught something in Latin, the word is he say it has. And it means thisness. And it is distinct from credit us the the the thatness or whatness of a thing. So for instance, St. Thomas Aquinas following Aristotle was say that all oak trees have an oak tree this that this that first of all connects all oak trees together but also separates oak trees from sycamore trees and other types of trees that oak tree this that thing which which is the distinguishing feature should we say of of all oak trees is it's credit us right it's it's it's that this what this Don Skotis went further as a some Thomas would say he went too far but this again that's another discussion. He said that yes, of course, he agrees doesn't disagree with what Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle and others are saying. He says all oak trees do have an oak tree in this the credit us but they also have an Hachaitas a thisness that in other words that every oak tree is also unique. It's not merely a copy of the others even though it shares the credit tea and credit us. And of course we now know this we can we can we can we can discuss this describe this metaphysically or physically physically I have friends who are microbiologists who will tell you that that's absolutely true at the microbiological level. Every cell of an acorn is unique from all other acorns and no two acorns are identical. So it's like our fingerprints that there is a there is an authentic thisness in that sense to every oak tree. On a metaphysical level it's because God doesn't mass produce. Now you all now used to seeing mass produce things in plastic that are produced by a mold and a machine that mass produces them and they all look identical. Of course the atoms in them are not identical but the point is this is mass produced by machines. God does not mass produce in that way. He's not a factory. He loves things into being and because God loves things into being they are unique unique offspring of his thought and will shall we say. So this was what what what really inspired Hopkins and he flushed with a new enthusiasm because now he could see everything in the cosmos as unique and this this can by the way can apply to individual things such as an oak tree or a combination of individual things such as a landscape or a combination of individual things moving through times such as an event. So possibly his greatest poem is the wreck of the Deutschland which is the story story about the unique presence of God in a natural disaster in the in the wrecking of a ship off the coast of England resulting in one quarter of the people on board being either drowned or killed by exposure. Where's the presence of God in this unique event so that was the the Hachaitas or the inscape of that natural disaster but also he writes a book a poem called Binsey Poplars about a landscape of poplar trees or you can write about the windhofer and a kestrel about one particular bird but in each case the inscape is the unique the uniqueness of the being as being representative of the love of God for it and and and so that's that's in scape so the third thing we have to talk about before we look at some of his poetry with the time we have left is in stress so he said sprung rhythm, in scape it's like the soul of things beyond their physical properties when we're looking at it the spiritual reality of something beyond its merely physical properties the love within which they were created all right they created by the love of God there's that divine love that's present in the beauty of the thing but in stress is the the moment when we see that all right it's there anyway whether we see it or not beauty is not in the eye of the beholder it's in the thing beheld if we don't behold the beauty of a sunset it's not because the sunset's not beautiful it's because we're blind either physically or metaphysically spiritually we just that we don't bother to look or we don't care to wrapped up in our own selfish thoughts that we don't we don't experience the beauty but it's not because it's not there beauty's not in the eye of the beholder it's in the thing beheld so in stress is the moment when we behold it when we see the beauty in a thing or a landscape or an event as the eureka moment the I have found it and what are the point I have seen it and it's that moment of epiphany that moment of showing forth the love of God in the presence of beauty has made manifest to our senses which is the moment of in stress and of course this is also the moment of poetic inspiration when the poet sees the beauty in something sees the divine presence in something and then by the grace of God and using the God-given talents he's given is inspired to write a beautiful poem about it all right so with the few minutes we have left I'm going to finish with with a simple poem by by a hopkin that's called rosa mystica and it's quite long but I think we're going to because it's just beautiful it's a beautiful hymn of praise to the bledded virgin and it's it's simple but I want to look at one or two of the more should we say complex complicated aspects of of of hopkins's poetry I want to look at the wreck of the Deutschland particularly and one a book I would like to write and god willing I will write I'd like to write a whole book about this poem so it's basically the the the heading under it uh is written uh it's about an event that happened on December the 6th December the 7th 1875 and it's dedicated to the happy memory of five franciscan nuns exiles by the folk laws drowned between midnight and morning of December the 7th 1875 so this was the inspiration he reads the newspaper about this shipwreck and especially about there being five franciscan sisters amongst those that were on the wreck none of whom survived but of these five sisters one was a tall nun over six foot six foot tall and all the newspaper reports talked about how she called people to repentance prayer and repentance in the midst of this this this storm that that could claim their lives and and did claim the lives of one fourth of them and this was the inspiration this uh this this giant test of a nun like a st John the Baptist figure in the midst of uh this natural disaster calling people to repentance and prayer prior to their death and then the poem is actually divided into 35 stanzas my the idea of my book would be to write about a thousand words on each of the stanzas part the first so the first part uh is the first 10 stanzas is a mystical meditation upon the mystery of suffering uh and then the second part a part the second the remaining 25 stanzas is a narrative account of the shipwreck and the and the role of the nuns in that except it's all seen uh through the escape of what's happening in other words he's trying to see what's happening in the light of the presence and the love of god so in the midst of a natural suffering and that natural disaster with great suffering where is god's presence so let me maybe read one stanza from uh the first part on the on the on the on the uh mystery of suffering and then what read one part from the second uh where where shall i read what should i read really i mean all right let's read this one because this is stanza four i am soft sift in an hourglass at the wall fast but mind with a modern motion adrift and it crowds and it combs to the fall i steady as a water in a well to a poise to a pain but roped with always all the way down from the tall fells off lengths of the foil a vein of the gospel proffer a pressure a principle christ's gift now um that takes some unpacking that's why i want to write the book this is not an easy poem and probably if you'd ever heard of this poem before and i just heard me reading it not necessarily particularly well you're gonna want wonder what on earth all that was about um well i just could look at let's just look at the first uh seven words then just to delete lead you in i am soft sift in an hourglass what is that a beautiful faith beautiful phasiology with um some good alliteration and onomatopoeia soft sift so this is that this is the vision is of an hourglass you know an egg time if you like right sands of time and you know out when our life begins it's turn over each of us is soft sift in an hourglass uh we have a certain length of time when the sands of time are passing through us uh and when that sand is run out we die all of us are soft sift in an hourglass so anyway this is a memento moria reminder of death let me just read i'm actually gonna probably in the second one second part i can begin with yeah let's read the first part of first dance of the second part some find me a sword some the flange and the rail flame fang or flood goes death on drum and storms bugle his fame but we dream we are rooted in earth dust flesh falls within sight of us we though our flower the same wave with the memento forget that there must the sour side cringe and the bleershare come so basically this is just some find me a sword some of the flange and the rail so the railway flame fang or flood goes death on drum we don't know how we're going to die there are various ways we can die violently accidentally natural causes um but we are all going to die so you get a tyrannism of death and this is death on drum it's reminding us banging the drum for death if you like to remind us that we are mortal and we need to bear that in mind and that we are as phrase there we dream we are rooted in earth dust all right now i'm going to finish this and before i um finish the whole thing with this wonderful prayer of the desid virgin with the final stanza of the poem which is a prayer to the deceased nun uh the deceased Francis consists of whom uh Hopkins basically canonizes and prays to at the end dame at our door drown and among our souls remember us in the roads the heaven haven of the reward our king back oh upon english souls let him easter in us be a dayspring to the dimness of us he a crimson credited east more brightening her rare dear britain as his rain rolls pride rose prince hero of us high priest our hearts charities hearts fire our thoughts chivalry's throngs lord well if you didn't understand at all i hope you realize how beautiful it was all right and i i'm going to now just conclude we could say much more about this wonderful jesuit priest and poet but i'm going to let him speak for himself by finishing with his hymn to the virgin rosamistica rosamistica of course is one of the titles that blessed virgin given in the uh litany of loretto the litany of the blessed virgin rosamistica by gerard manly hopkins the rose is a mystery where is it found is that anything true does it grow upon ground it was made of earth's mold but it went from men's eyes and its place is a secret and shut in the skies in the gardens of god in the daylight divine find me a place by thee mother of mine but where was it formerly which is the spot that was blessed in it once though now it is not it is galilee's growth it grew at god's will and broke into bloom upon nazareth hill in the gardens of god in the daylight divine i shall look on thy loveliness mother of mine what was its season then how long ago when was the the summer that saw the bad blow two thousands of years are near upon past since its birth and its bloom and its breathing it's lost in the gardens of god in the daylight divine i shall keep time with thee mother of mine tell me the name now tell me its name the heart gets as easily is it the same marry the virgin well the heart knows she is the mystery she is the rose in the gardens of god in the daylight divine i shall come home to thee mother of mine is marry the rose then marry the tree but the blossom the blossom there who can it be who can her rose be it could but be one christ jesus our lord her god and her son in the gardens of god in the daylight divine show me thy son mother mother of mine what was the color of that blossom bright white to begin with immaculate white but water while flash on the flakes of it stood when the rose ran ran when the rose ran in crimsonings down the crosswood in the gardens of god in the daylight divine i shall worship the wounds with thee mother of mine how many leaves had it five they were then five like the senses and members of men five is their number by nature but now they multiply multiply who can tell how in the gardens of god in the daylight divine make me a leaf in thee mother of mine does it smell sweet too in that holy place sweet unto god and the sweetness is grace the breath of it bathes great heavens above in grace that is charity grace that is love to thy breast to thy rest to thy glory divine draw me by charity mother of mine thank you so much for listening to this episode of the authority please do join me next time until then goodbye god bless and good reading this has been an episode of the authority with joseph pierce brought to you by for updates on new episodes and to support the authority and other great free content visit the authority podcast dot com to subscribe and use coupon code authority 25 to get 25 percent off your next order including books audio books and video courses by joseph pierce on literary giants such as tulking chesterton louis shakespeare and bellow as well as tans extensive catalog of content from the saints and great spiritual masters to strengthen your faith and interior life to follow joseph and support his work check out his blog and sign up for email updates and exclusive content at j pierce dot com and thanks for listening