Walking with Gerard Manley Hopkins: A Poet's Journey

During his lifetime, priest-poet Gerard Manley Hopkins appeared to be a failure. His daring conversion to Catholicism and entry into the Society of Jesus in Victorian England alienated him from friends and family and dashed his chances for the brilliant academic career that would have been his. Because he championed the theology of Duns Scotus over that of Thomas Aquinas, he “failed” his final theology exams and never achieved the top rank of professed Jesuit father. As for his poetry, even...