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Gerard Manley Hopkins

Inversnaid

Some challenging questions!

Keith Tankard
Knowledge4Africa.com
Updated: 1 March 2014
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"Inversnaid" is the description of a stream tumbling down through the highlands of Scotland to the waterfall at Inversnaid.

At its heart is a hymn of praise for the beauty of creation, as well as an appeal for such wildernesses to be left unspoilt.



ABOUT THE POET

Gerard Manley Hopkins was born in 1844, the first of nine children. His parents were staunch Anglicans.

Hopkins attended a grammar school in Highgate and then continued on to Oxford University.

His search for religion, however, caused him to fall under the influence of the great Catholic convert, John Henry Newman. As a result, Hopkins became a Catholic in 1866 and then joined the Society of Jesus the following year.

Initially Hopkins burned all his early poetry because he believed it was a symbol of ambition in the world.

He later changed his mind, however, after being influenced by the writings of the medieval scholar Duns Scotus who saw art as a reflection of God within the world.

From this concept, Hopkins developed his philosophy of Inscape and Instress.

Inscape is the underlying form that marks the essence of all things, the God-principle which exists in everything.

Instress, on the other hand, is our ability to experience that God-principle.

Everything has inscape. In other words, everything has a God-principle.

Not everyone, however, has instress. The person who watches the glory of the setting sun but is reminded of a poached egg clearly lacks instress.

The poet studied Theology in Wales, which is probably where he picked up the Welsh lyrical way of speaking and writing. He would translate this into his poetry in what he called Sprung Rhythm.

Hopkins was ordained a priest in 1877 and then worked as a curate in Sheffield, Oxford and then London before moving on to become parish priest in slum parishes in Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow.

None of this work was intellectually suitable for a man who had such a brilliant mind.

He then became a professor of Latin and Greek, first at Stonyhurst College in Lancashire and then at University College in Dublin.

His frustration, however, at having to mark a plethora of mediocre scripts sent him spiralling into a state of deep depression from which he would not emerge.

He died of typhoid fever in 1889. He was then 44 years of age.

Have you looked at the questions
in the right column?
TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer
the following questions:



"Inversnaid" is the description of a stream tumbling down through the highlands of Scotland to the waterfall at Inversnaid. The poet has used several Scottish words in this poem.
  • How many Scottish words can you identify? What does each mean? (5 x 2)

[Need help?]




Hopkins is well known for creating words, often by joining together two words to create a new one.
  • How many created words can you find? (5 x 2)

[Need help?]




This darksome burn, horseback brown,
His rollrock highroad roaring down.
  • What do you think the poet means by the term "rollrock"? (4)

[Need help?]

  • Why should the burn or stream be said to be "horseback brown"? (2)

[Need help?]




In coop and in comb the fleece of his foam
Flutes and low to the lake falls home.
  • Remembering that Hopkins sometimes plays around with word-order, what do you think "In coop and in comb the fleece of his foam" means? (4)

[Need help?]

  • What does he mean when he says "to the lake falls home"? (2)

[Need help?]

  • What do "flutes" have to do with it? (4)

[Need help?]




A windpuff-bonnet of fáwn-fróth.
  • What would the poet mean by "a windpuff-bonnet"? (4)

[Need help?]

  • Why would he describe the froth on the stream as "fáwn-fróth"? (4)

[Need help?]




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