Union Jack

     English Wordplay ~ Listen and Enjoy

Hopkins aged 15 Hopkins as a Jesuit Priest

GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS

His Life through his Poetry

A Transcript of the Proposed Downloads and CD with Free Audio Excerpts

TRACK 8: Music 1

Hopkins always loved music and later in his life he turned his hand to composing

GREGORIAN CHANT: MAGNIFICAT FROM QUARR ABBEY, ISLE OF WIGHT 

    On a Piece of Music

How all's to one thing wrought !
The members, how they sit !
O what a tune the thought 
Must be that fancied it.

Nor angel insight can 
Learn how the heart is hence :
Since all the make of man 
Is law's indifference.

Who shaped these walls has shewn 
The music of his mind, Made known, 
though thick through stone 
What beauty beat behind.

FADE MUSIC

The next track: The Woodlark, Epigrams, The Cuckoo

Introduction to this Hopkins Feature

Gerard Manley Hopkins Workshop

Home Page

We recommend the Oxford Edition and in particular Sean Street's account of The Wreck of the Deutschland, which he was inspired to write from hearing my production of Paul Scofield's reading for BBC Radio 3.  We also highly recommend Gerard Manley Hopkins: A Study of Poetic Idiosyncrasy in Relation to Poetic Tradition by Professor Helen Gardner: