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A
memorial stone to Gerard Manley Hopkins, poet, was unveiled on
8th December 1975 in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey by the
Duke of Norfolk. Sir John Gielgud read extracts from his
works. The sculptor was David Peace and the stone sits between
those to Henry James and John Masefield. The quote on the
stone comes from "That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire.." and a
tower in flames is shown.
The Latin sections of the inscription can be translated: "To
the greater glory of God" and "To be rather than to be seen".
He was born on 28th July 1844 at Stratford in Essex, a child
of Manley Hopkins and his wife Catherine (Smith). He was
educated at Highgate school and Oxford university. At first he
thought of becoming an artist like two of his brothers but his
interest changed to languages and poetry. He became a Roman
Catholic and joined the Jesuit order of the Society of Jesus.
In 1877 he was ordained priest and studied or taught in Wales
and at Stonyhurst college in Lancashire. Many of his poems
were sonnets and his best known poem is probably The Wreck of
the Deutschland, inspired by the ship of this name which sank
in 1875 with some nuns aboard. He held the chair of Greek and
Latin at University College Dublin where he died on 8th June
1889 of typhoid fever. His grave is in the Jesuit plot at
Glasnevin. His friend Robert Bridges published an edition of
his poems in 1918 but Hopkins was not really recognised as a
major poet until the 1960s.
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