ABSTRACT
Hopkins' opus begins with a fully developed, polished, lengthy poem of technical merit and theological interest. In 'The Escorial,' written on a set topic for a poetry competition when he was sixteen, Hopkins explored ideas which remained important throughout his life, and which reappeared in his poetic works until the very last. 1 These ideas were to do with religion and the arts, and their interconnectedness, and with the concepts of truth and beauty as aspects of the expression of religious ideals. The tendency to bypass 'The Escorial' as a juvenile effort, or a setpiece, is to underemphasize the continuity of thought in Hopkins' poems which can be observed even before he entered Oxford and fonnally became associated with the Tractarian movement.2 'The Escorial' is an excellent starting-point for a discussion of continuities in Hopkins' works.
