Gerard Manley Hopkins

    Everyone is destined to be great for a moment in their lives.   For Gerard
Manley Hopkins this was difficult.   Gerard was a poet that came way before his
time and people didn't realize the power he had with words.
    Gerard Manley Hopkins was one of the most original poets to write in
English at any time period.   He only lived for 45 years and only had three of
his poems published during his lifetime.   Gerard was torn between his love of
God and his love of poetry.
    Gerard Manley Hopkins, born on July 28 1844, was the eldest of   eight
children of a London marine insurance adjuster.   Besides writing books about
marine insurance Gerard's father, Manley, also wrote a volume of poetry.   His
mother on the other hand was a very pious person.   She was actively involved in
the church and impressed her religion on Gerard.   He attended Highgate School
where his talent for poetry was first shown.   Some sources say he won as many as
seven contests while enrolled at Highgate.
    Gerard in 1864 enrolled at Balliol College, at Oxford, to Read Greats
(classics, ancient history, and philosophy).   At this time in his life he wanted
to become a painter, like one of his siblings.   His plans changed when he, and
three of his friends were drawn in to Catholicism.   He was received by the
Church of Newman in October of 1866.   After having taken a first class degree in
1867, he taught at the Oratory School, Birmingham.   Two years later he decided
to become a Jesuit when he burned all   his verses as too worldly.   When he
entered as a Jesuit he wrote no poems. although the though of crossing the two
vocations constantly crossed his mind.   Then in 1875 he told his superior how
moved he felt by the wreck of the Deutschland, a ship carrying five nuns exiled
from Germany.   His superior expressed his wish that someone would write a poem
about it.   Hopkins having his motive wrote his first major work.   He sent his...