the book offers a detailed commentary on the poetry of Hopkins,
exploring the significance of contemporary cultural issues and the
poet's life as Catholic convert and Jesuit priest. Part 1 traces
Hopkins's life from his early schooldays, his undergraduate years at
Oxford and conversion to Catholicism, to his work as a Jesuit scholar
and poet-priest. Part 2, explains the core principles of Hopkins's
innovative and challenging poetry, including sections on inscape,
instress and sprung rhythm. Part 3, provides a detailed critical
commentary on most of the major poems, including The Wreck of the
Deutschland, God's Grandeur, The Windhover, Pied Beauty, The Caged
Skylark, Hurrahing in Harvest, Felix Randal, Spring and Fall,
Inversnaid, the six 'Terrible Sonnets', and That Nature is a Heraclitean
Fire. Part 4, explores the history of Hopkins criticism from that of his
own contemporaries to twentieth century and current critical approaches.
John Gilroy is also the author of Reading Philip Larkin: Selected Poms