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ISSN : 1226-4946(Print)
ISSN : 2288-5412(Online)
The Yeats Journal of Korea Vol.21 pp.35-54
DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.14354/yjk.2004.21.35

Hopkins in Ireland

Wonchul Shin

Abstract

G.M. Hopkins had stayed in Ireland for 5 years until he died and spent hishardest time in his livelihood but best time for his literature. He had converted toCatholic in his youth and became a priest at last, in spite of the objection of hisfamily. That is a kind of ideal-searching decision but it also means a spiritualseclusion in England which is ruled by Anglican Church. As a priest he was full ofhumanity, love of people, especially for low class poor persons, and always felt pityfor their miserable lives. And he wanted all the English people choose the realreligion, Catholic, and get bettered in their spirit, but he cannot but disappointing intheir vulgarity and hypocrisy.
Anyhow he had very sensitive and self-conscious personality to cope with allthis situation bravely. When he went to Ireland as a teacher of Greek in UniversityCollege, he might have felt a kind of friendship to Irish people through theirreligion, Catholic. But Irish people has had deep hostility to English people becauseof their historical background. And there was booming a mood of nationalismagainst England in those days when Hopkins stayed in Dublin. Of course, it wasvery hard to teach Irish young students full of hostility to English people. And hishealth grew worse and worse. In that miserable situation, he seemed to feel a kindof desperation that God discarded him. We can find his alone and isolated situationin the sonnet “To seem the stranger lies my lot, my life“ and more deep andprivate sentiment in another sonnet “I wake and feel the fell of dark“.
It is ironical that his hard life made him write such good sonnets. His hard lifewas over with the sonnet “Thou art indeed just, Lord“ where he reconciles with hisGod at last. In conclusion, his staying in Ireland was a good opportunity for hispoetry, his literary achievement.

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