ABSTRACT

The contemporary poet is in a situation which parallels in some ways that of John Dryden. With Gerard Manley Hopkins, and later with T. S. Eliot, the break with the nineteenth century declares itself with distinctness. Hopkins's criticism is to be found mainly in his letters, and they are often reminiscent of the letters of John Keats, not in their conclusions but in the continuous and intense investigations of the poet's aim. Hopkins may have stretched tolerance too far in his appreciation of the work of his friends. Hopkins's own statement on his achievement is a far truer summary than the exaggerated praise of some contemporary comment which has attempted to elevate him by reducing his predecessors. There is little in Hopkins's verse or in his criticism that can be explained by the classical or romantic contrast. The study of Hopkins suggests that the poet's relationship to belief, and to a mythological world, is fundamental than any 'romantic' contrast.