The Wreck of the Deutschland

Nigel Foxell's first and scholarly book, Ten Poems Analysed (Pergamon Press, 1966), concluded with his study of Gerard Manley Hopkins' masterpiece, 'The Wreck of the Deutschland', that "magisterially eccentric work of genius" in the phrase of Geoffrey Hill. Over fifty years on, this is the chapter Foxell has chosen to reprint.

Along with the poem, the new book contains his Introduction to the poem from 1966 as well as detailed notes, which have been corrected where necessary and occasionally...