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Literary Criticism
Abstract/Description
The 19th century English poet and Jesuit, Gerard Manly Hopkins, was a deeply religious man, and his poetry is permeated with veneration and admiration for God. Hopkins was able to see God’s hand in all things, and he illustrates these connections through his many poems, but there is a darker side to Hopkins. Towards the end of his life, he wrote his gloomiest Christian poems a total of six titled: “The Terrible Sonnets.” Here, a devout Jesuit priest, laments his life, questions God, contemplates death, and struggles with the nature of evil. This paper will inspect those sonnets, why they were written, what they mean, and their religious implications from a Christian and Mormon standpoint. Many view “The Terrible Sonnets” as evidence that Hopkins made the wrong decision entering the priesthood; however, I argue that they reflect a believer’s faith like the scriptural lamentations of Job, David, and Joseph Smith.
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Faculty Involvement
Jarica Watts
Gerard Manley Hopkins: "A Jesuit Questioning Jesus?"
The 19th century English poet and Jesuit, Gerard Manly Hopkins, was a deeply religious man, and his poetry is permeated with veneration and admiration for God. Hopkins was able to see God’s hand in all things, and he illustrates these connections through his many poems, but there is a darker side to Hopkins. Towards the end of his life, he wrote his gloomiest Christian poems a total of six titled: “The Terrible Sonnets.” Here, a devout Jesuit priest, laments his life, questions God, contemplates death, and struggles with the nature of evil. This paper will inspect those sonnets, why they were written, what they mean, and their religious implications from a Christian and Mormon standpoint. Many view “The Terrible Sonnets” as evidence that Hopkins made the wrong decision entering the priesthood; however, I argue that they reflect a believer’s faith like the scriptural lamentations of Job, David, and Joseph Smith.