Gerard Manley Hopkins is considered to be one of the greatest poets of the Victorian era. However, because his style was so radically different from that of his contemporaries, his best poems were not accepted for publication during his lifetime, and his achievement was not fully recognized until after World War I. Hopkins’s family encouraged his artistic talents when he was a youth in Essex, England. However, Hopkins became estranged from his Protestant family when he converted to Roman Catholicism. Upon deciding to become a priest, he burned all of his poems and did not write again for many years. His work was not published until 30 years after his death when his friend Robert Bridges edited the volume Poems.

These sonnets of desolation consist of the six original “terrible sonnets” of 1885—”Carrion Comfort,” “No worst, there is none,” “To seem the stranger,” “I wake and feel,” “Patience,” and “My own heart”—and three sonnets of 1889—”Thou art indeed just,” “The Shepherd’s Brow,” and “To R. B.”

According to his own testimony Hopkins was subject to melancholy all his life, but his “terrible pathos,” as Dixon called it, is most obvious in these late sonnets.

Author, teacher and poet, Philip Quirke grew up in Wexford town and has a number of publications to his name including the recently launched new collection ‘Taking Stock’, as well as 'Elegy for Pierces' , a poetic look at the people who worked in Pierces foundry, 'Journey to the Shore' and 'Bruised Reeds'. Philip's work has been widely published, featuring in well-respected publications which include The Shop, Coffee House Poetry and Poetry in Motion. His work has also featured on the pages of several local newspapers.

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