The+General



= __The Lieutenant General__ = = G.M. Hopkins =

= Back to The Battlefield =

= Background Check = G.M. Hopkins, born Gerard Manley Hopkins on July 28, 1844, was a poet known most for his poetic style and techniques, which were usually centered around religious verses and occasionally romantic dedications. Hopkins was the first of nine children born to Manley and Catherine (Smith) Hopkins. In 1874, Hopkins started "studying theology in North Wales, he learned Welsh, and was later to adapt the rhythms of Welsh poetry to his own verse, inventing what he called 'sprung rhythm'" (Everett). Hopkins was reportedly taught this style by five Catholic nuns who had been exiled from Germany at the time. After his schooling, where he began writing poetry, Hopkins was a Roman Catholic convert who became a Jesuit priest. He worked tirelessly as a priest, writing in his spare time, and he traveled a lot due to his vocation. However, towards the end of his life in the 1880s, Hopkins encountered troubles with his exams. He started to fail many exams and his poetry took a dark turn into his double sonnets, as he had "a sense that his prayers no longer reached God" (Everett). Hopkins refused to let his depression set in and, as he was of typhoid fever on June 8, 1889, it is said that his last words were, "I am happy, so happy."

Works Cited "Biography of Gerard Manley Hopkins." //PoemHunter.com.// N.p. Web. 20 May 2013. <[|http://www.poemhunter.com/gerard-manley-hopkins/biography/]>. Everett, Glenn. "Gerard Manley Hopkins: A Brief Biography." //The Victorian Web.// ​N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2013. .

= Poems =