April 14, 2009
A ground-breaking 19th century English poet who reached his
creative heights after converting to Catholicism was the subject of
the first event in a lecture series focusing on Catholic issues in
the arts and scholarship.
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Launching the Catholic Lecture Series at St. John’s University on
April 6, two award-winning scholars— Ron Hansen, Ph.D., of Santa
Clara and Paul Mariani, Ph.D., of Boston University — discussed
innovative poet and priest Gerard Manley Hopkins.
The
series was established by St. John’s College of Liberal Arts and
Sciences and the Office of the Provost. The inaugural event drew
students, faculty and staff to the Little Theatre on the Queens
campus.
In their lecture, Writing Hopkins, the speakers explored
the role of Catholicism and faith in Hopkins’s verse. They also
read from their books on Hopkins, shedding further light on his
life and work.
“The Catholic Lecture Series advances the University’s strategic
goal of visibly embedding our Catholic and Vincentian mission in
the academic life of the University,” said Jeffrey Fagen, Ph.D.,
Dean of St. John’s College of Arts and Sciences and Professor of
Psychology.
According to Dr. Fagen, “future lectures will continue to address
how various liberal arts disciplines are impacted by Catholic
tradition.”
Faith-Inspired Poetry
Dr.
Hansen read from his novel, Exiles, while Dr. Mariani read
from his biography, Gerald Manley Hopkins: A Life.
Although their narrative styles differed, both Hopkins scholars
were united by their admiration for Hopkins as an original and
remarkable poet. “Though he produced a small body of poetry,” said
Dr. Hansen, ”he ranks high among English poets and profoundly
influenced 20th century poetry.”
Picking up the Pen Again
An Oxford-trained poet, Hopkins converted to Catholicism as a young
man. Eventually becoming a Jesuit priest, he temporarily decided to
stop writing poetry as an act of renunciation of earthly
delights.
Dr. Hansen read excerpts from his book dealing with this decision
as well as sections about the occasion that prompted Hopkins to
pick up his pen again.
The event was the crash of the Deutschland, a German steamship, in
December 1875. Five young Franciscan nuns who were fleeing
religious persecution in Germany drowned in the crash. The tragedy
captured Hopkins’s imagination, moving him deeply. When one of his
superiors suggested that a poem be written to mark the loss,
Hopkins rose to the occasion producing The Wreck of the
Deutschland.
A New Kind of Verse
Considered a masterpiece, the sonnet introduced the use of sprung
rhythm to recreate natural speech. This stylistic technique is
considered Hopkins’s major literary legacy.
According to Dr. Hansen, the 35-stanza poem displays Hopkins’s “ear
for language and the rhythm of speech by stressing accents instead
of syllables and his unique ability to penetrate the essence of his
subject matter through his sacramental vision of the world.”
He added: “Hopkins appeals to all kinds of religious backgrounds as
well as to non-believers because he was able to write with ecstatic
joy about nature and religion.” Despite its poetic
achievements and heart-rending imagery. Professor Hansen noted that
Deutschland was never published during the poet’s short
lifetime. Hopkins was just 44 when he succumbed to typhoid
fever.
The Grandeur of God
Dr. Mariani’s biography begins with Hopkins’s conversion from
Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism at the age of 22. The author
shows how Hopkins’s faith and religiosity is reflected in his
subsequent poetry,
“His verse is incarnated with spirituality and sings of the
grandeur of God,” he said. “His words reflect a God-saturated
reality and a sacramental vision of the world around us. He chose
to sing about a world that reflected God.”
Discussing The Wreck of the Deutschland, Dr. Mariani
observed, “the themes were seriously theological: God, nature,
salvation, providence, human despair and spiritual exultation.”
Instead of employing nice regular rhymes, Dr. Mariani noted, “his
poems struggle to contain an ecstatic syntax, the words twisting
and contorting and breathlessly straining to articulate some almost
inexpressible mystery.”
Dr. Hansen is the author of more than 20 books, stories and
anthologies. He received the Award in Literature from the American
Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. His novels include
Mariette in Ecstasy, Atticus and Hitler’s
Niece.
Dr. Mariani is the author of 14 books, including biographies of
Robert Lowell, John Berryman and William Carlos Williams. He has
been awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the
National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the
Humanities.