Hopkins, Gerard Manley, 1844-1889

Gerard Manley Hopkins was born in Stratford, Essex, on July 28, 1844, as the eldest of nine children to Manley and Catherine Hopkins, née Smith. From 1863 to 1867, Hopkins studied classics at Balliol College, Oxford University, taking first-class degrees in both Classics and Greats. At Oxford, Hopkins befriended the poet Robert Bridges. In 1866, Hopkins converted to Catholicism. Upon entering the Society of Jesus in 1868, he destroyed the poetry he had written up to that point. Hopkins then studied theology at St. Beuno's College in Wales from 1874 to 1877.

After his ordination in 1877, Hopkins taught Latin and Greek at Stonyhurst College, Lancaster, and at University College, Dublin. His years in Ireland were marked by overwork and poor health, and provoked a series of poems known as the "terrible sonnets," reflecting his melancholy dejection. He died of typhoid on June 8, 1889, in Dublin.

Hopkins was not published during his own lifetime, but became famous posthumously for his use of sprung rhythm. His poems include: "Binsey Poplars,” (1879) "Pied Beauty," (1877) "The Windhover: To Christ our Lord," (1877) and “The Wreck of the Deutschland” (1875).