Selected poetry

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-89) is now recognized as a major poet of striking originality.

He is widely admired for his particularly vivid expression of feeling, from the religious ecstasy of "The Blessed Virgin" to the torments of his loneliness and despair in "No Worst", and for conveying with wonderful freshness his sense of natural beauty in such poems as "The Windhover" and "Pied Beauty".

This selection, chosen from the "Oxford Authors" critical edition, includes all his major English poems and most of the larger fragments.

The poems are supported with extensive notes and a useful introduction to Hopkins's life and poetry.