The article explores Gerard Manley Hopkins’s poetic representation of the agon between mortality and immortality. In addition to poems that convey grand images of a world imbued with spirituality, Hopkins also wrote verse that investigate the reality of human finitude. In the latter, the category of time becomes an object of intense scrutiny. By reflecting on time’s flow and rhythm, the poet tries to find clues to the archetypal mysteries of life, death and after-death. Besides conducting a philosophical and textual analysis of his conceptualization of mortality, the article focuses on a specific poem that revolves around ideas of chronology and mortality: ‘To His Watch’. An unfinished and largely understudied sonnet, ‘To His Watch’ is worth examining since it poses questions that theologians and philosophers have long striven to answer.
"To his Watch": Gerard Manley Hopkins and the Rhythm of Mortal Life
COSTANTINI, Mariaconcetta
2012-01-01
Abstract
The article explores Gerard Manley Hopkins’s poetic representation of the agon between mortality and immortality. In addition to poems that convey grand images of a world imbued with spirituality, Hopkins also wrote verse that investigate the reality of human finitude. In the latter, the category of time becomes an object of intense scrutiny. By reflecting on time’s flow and rhythm, the poet tries to find clues to the archetypal mysteries of life, death and after-death. Besides conducting a philosophical and textual analysis of his conceptualization of mortality, the article focuses on a specific poem that revolves around ideas of chronology and mortality: ‘To His Watch’. An unfinished and largely understudied sonnet, ‘To His Watch’ is worth examining since it poses questions that theologians and philosophers have long striven to answer.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
