Theme of Nature in the Poetry of Gerald Manley Hopkins Anonymous College

During the Victorian Era, most poets did not focus on nature and the divine world, but instead on cultural and societal issues occurring in England during that time. But Gerard Manley Hopkins chose to not pursue the path of his fellow poets, and took more of a romanticism-inspired route while writing his poetic masterpieces. Gerard Manley Hopkins chose to write about nature and Christianity, much like the romantic poets Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and John Keats. Most of his poems were written when he was a Christian priest, which is why his poems had several traces of Christian theology and communicate the beauty of nature. He also created the idea of poetic originality, which involves a poem using puns, unusual rhymes, omission of certain words, use of interjections, and unusual compounded words. All of Hopkins's work had most of these traits which make it easy to identify his poetry. Two of his poems “Spring” and “Pied Beauty” have strong themes of nature, God, and poetic originality, all of which were favorite themes of Hopkins.

“Spring”, written in 1880 focused mainly on how it is ultimately up to God to protect the beauty and innocence of nature from sin. Many lines throughout this poem have strong connections to nature....