Gerard+Manley+Hopkins

Gerard Manley Hopkins was born in 1844. He was the oldest of nine children. He studied under Walter Pater and Benjamin Jowett in Highgate grammar school. At first he wanted to be a painter and poet, but his search for religion was stronger than anything. John Henry Newman influenced him to join the Catholicism. He became a member of the Society of Jesus and as a result of this burned his poems, because he felt they were too individualistic for a Jesuit priest. However, after studying the writings of Duns Scotus, he decided that poetry was not against the teachings of his religion. Hopkins died in 1889. His poems were not published when he was living.