Hopkins wrote splendid prose. His journals vividly describe trees and skies and waterfalls, tell funny stories, probe roots and sounds of words, and record baby-talk, African names, and a cows sagging jowls. His color-palette and love of language show a word-painter and poet-in-the-making. His letters, in turn, bring human warmth, quick turns of word, puns, banter, stories, jokes, and comments on poetry and events. His sermons, finally, surprise with unusual perspectives and startling images and metaphors. Hopkinss extant Early Diaries and Journal span the years 1862 to 1875. After just one entry from High gate School, his Diary records his life at Oxford from 24 September 1863 to 23 January 1866. The play of Hopkinss Diary begins in his first Oxford entry as he speculates on links between the word growth and related words: growth, anything growing vigorously, blooming it may be, but yet producing fruit.