Gerard Manley Hopkins - To Seem a Stranger -Everyman - documentary

Here's "To Seem a Stranger" the 1986 Everyman Documentary a definitive documentary about the great Gerard Manley Hopkins who grew up not far from where London held the 2012 Olympics in Stratford East London. In my humble opinion Britain never produced a greater poet his unique use of language and sprung rhythm and metaphysical imagery make his poetry pure versical magic. The poetry is read definitively by the Brilliant Paul R Webtser who has an excellent channel at youtube
/ paulrwebster
Gerard Manley Hopkins, (born July 28, 1844, Stratford, Essex, Eng.-died June 8, 1889, Dublin), English poet and Jesuit priest, one of the most individual of Victorian writers. His work was not published in collected form until 1918, but it influenced many leading 20th-century poets.
Hopkins was the eldest of the nine children of Manley Hopkins, an Anglican, who had been British consul general in Hawaii and had himself published verse. Hopkins won the poetry prize at the Highgate grammar school and in 1863 was awarded a grant to study at Balliol College, Oxford, where he continued writing poetry while studying classics. In 1866, in the prevailing atmosphere of the Oxford Movement, which renewed interest in the relationships between Anglicanism and Roman Catholicism, he was received into the Roman Catholic Church by John Henry (later Cardinal) Newman. The following year, he left Oxford with such a distinguished academic record that Benjamin Jowett, then a Balliol lecturer and later master of the college, called him “the star of Balliol.” Hopkins decided to become a priest. He entered the Jesuit novitiate in 1868 and burned his youthful verses, determining “to write no more, as not belonging to my profession.”
Until 1875, however, he kept a journal recording his vivid responses to nature as well as his expression of a philosophy for which he later found support in Duns Scotus, the medieval Franciscan thinker. Hopkins’ philosophy emphasized the individuality of every natural thing, which he called “inscape.” To Hopkins, each sensuous impression had its own elusive “selfness”; each scene was to him a “sweet especial scene.”
In 1874 Hopkins went to St. Beuno’s College in North Wales to study theology. There he learned Welsh, and, under the impact of the language itself as well as that of the poetry and encouraged by his superior, he began to write poetry again. Moved by the death of five Franciscan nuns in a shipwreck in 1875, he broke his seven-year silence to write the long poem “The Wreck of the Deutschland,” in which he succeeded in realizing “the echo of a new rhythm” that had long been haunting his ear. It was rejected, however, by the Jesuit magazine The Month. He also wrote a series of sonnets strikingly original in their richness of language and use of rhythm, including the remarkable “The Windhover,” one of the most frequently analyzed poems in the language. He continued to write poetry, but it was read only in manuscript by his friends and fellow poets, Robert Bridges (later poet laureate), Coventry Patmore, and the Rev. Richard Watson Dixon. Their appreciation of the strangeness of the poems (for the times) was imperfect, but they were, nevertheless, encouraging.
Ordained to the priesthood in 1877, Hopkins served as missioner, occasional preacher, and parish priest in various Jesuit churches and institutions in London, Oxford, Liverpool, and Glasgow and taught classics at Stonyhurst College, Lancashire. He was appointed professor of Greek literature at University College, Dublin, in 1884. But Hopkins was not happy in Ireland; he found the environment uncongenial, and he was overworked and in poor health. From 1885 he wrote another series of sonnets, beginning with “Carrion Comfort.” They show a sense of desolation produced partly by a sense of spiritual aridity and partly by a feeling of artistic frustration. These poems, known as the “terrible sonnets,” reveal strong tensions between his delight in the sensuous world and his urge to express it and his equally powerful sense of religious vocation.

[@zarathustra8789]

I've lived in England for three years. In my free time I've acquainted myself with the poetry of Shakespeare, Milton, Keats, Dryden, Herbert, Donne, Wordsworth, Tennyson, Coleridge and others. I wish I had come across Hopkins as well and now I regret not having brought an anthology of his poetry back to my home country... PS: Beautiful documentary, thank you for this precious upload.

[@williamjayaraj2244]

Great poet and priest Gerad lived in this world as a stranger. The world did not understand him neither he understood it. That is the paradox in life. Great poets and great thinkers are capable of creating their world with God given wisdom and dwell in it .

[@louisaellingham602]

William Jayaraj I would say that Hopkins understood the world only too well and detested what the Industrial Revolution was doing to humanity and to his beloved Nature. That he could not dwell comfortably in such an atmosphere was obvious.

[@u.sonomabeach6528]

I'm here because of an interview James Dickey did discussing poetry. He said that Hopkins had the 2nd most inimitable and original 'sound'. Sound in the sense that particular musicians have a certain original sound

[@daigreatcoat44]

A marvellous documentary - thanks very much for making it available. I was very struck by John Wain's attitude to Hopkins' religious belief: nowadays, a commentator would probably feel obliged to distance himself from this. Though I'm an atheist, I don't need to have my lack of belief constantly confirmed by others. The whole programme dates from a time when the public were addressed with respect by documentary-makers - as in Kenneth Clark's great "Civilisation". thanks again.

[@alexlu9418]

The first time i read Hopkins i thought he was Hip Hop. His poetics predated Rakim by two hundred years, both men carefully worked out the curvature of their rhymes/lines. His poems will always sound fresh to me.

[@stevebbuk]

Small in stature but a giant amongst men, his genius barely recognized within the confines of his own lifetime, but which will shine through when all other mortals have departed this life..

[@videocurios]

Absolutely up there with any of the great poets.

[@purpledanny1958]

Such a profoundly evocative documentary! I am rendered speechless. Hopkins' intransigent commitment to God and beauty shame those materialists and philistines. Thanks for uploading!

[@videocurios]

I love Hopkins poetry,but I am one of those atheists. You Believe in God what other strange concepts do you believe in ha ha

[@purpledanny1958]

Please forgive my use of the word "atheist". I'm also an atheist, but I do have religious sentiment. Besides Hopkins, George Herbert is another poet I admire. Is "materialist" a better word than "atheist" :)

[@videocurios]

Yes Hopkins' poetry is very much under appreciated its as beautiful as any poetry written Glad to hear it,Philistines is probably the right word ha ha The recitals of Hopkins poetry in this documentary are performed definitively by the brilliant Paul R Webster kzbin.info kzbin.info/www/bejne/p6imknykns2BnNE Paul sent me my copy of this rare Edward Thomas doco kzbin.info/www/bejne/oXXYiatnrrOgZtE Try anthony Thwaites brilliant and definitive radio series on Victorian poetry in which Paul does many brilliant recitals kzbin.info?search_query=A+Century+of+Poetry

[@OUTBOUND184]

@@videocurios What is the source of that beauty you love in Hopkins? Why do you call that source a 'strange concept'. You sound happily blinded. Ignorant.

[@garyhosty9874]

Thanks for putting this up - a really beautiful documentary and a very sad one.

[@jackallensworth8736]

As a child of the American Midwest, I began to reach out for beauty perhaps out of the influence of some "Classical" education, i. e. much reading of translations onto English from Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, even Welsh (Taliesin, for one) and writings from Irish Gaelic or Old Irish...

[@GabrielEGiron-wx9lr]

Such a jewel of a documentary. Thanks for uploading!

[@timroberts7096]

Outstanding. Thank you

[@michaelboylan5308]

Was ever a more literate script written for TV ? Was ever a TV film better directed ? Maybe Song of Summer by Ken Russell, Maybe, Was ever a poet more relevant ? The zeitgeist is always wrong, A great poet is always right, Was ever a presenter better able to understand someone utterly different to himself ? Wain loved poetry so much he valued it higher than any belief, And Hopkins,,,what did he value most ? Were poetry and God for him the same thing,,as when Spinoza always wrote,,,God or Nature ? Too much glib knowingness now, I never tire of this film,,or Hopkins, I borrow the mantra of Montaigne,,,what do I know ?

[@michaelboylan5308]

One of those rare documentaries where the sole purpose of the presenter is to do justice to his subject,,,,only Bettany Hughes and Michael Wood do it now,There is no glib pseudo psychological explaining away of Hopkins and his poetry,,,only acute attention, I am pretty sure Wain was an atheist,,if so he was the last English atheist with intellectual integrity, What a tragedy GMH anf Yeats met,,and never spoke, What a loss to the world

[@themiddle8]

That was awesome.

[@Dagger1610]

I am working on a presentation for college on Hopkins and this came in handy. Thank You :)

[@Stephen-eire]

Thank you for sharing

[@peterrutz110]

Eindrücklich. Grossartig. Herrlich! Tanks.

[@dsly100]

I wish I could find a recording of Paul R Webster reading Hopkins.

[@HerAeolianHarp]

Thanks very much for sharing this now in its complete form. Much obliged.

[@greylajoie23]

Thank you!

[@billwilkie6211]

It applies to sound, to music, as well.

[@AudiobookLibrary24-7]

Wow!

[@videocurios]

[@trentappleman4597]

Cool documentary! Gerard Manley Hopkins, Dylan Thomas, and Emily Dickinson taught me more about poetry as music and craft than all of the other poets of the modern age combined. This is a poem I wrote in sprung rhythm, and I deeply regret that the sprung rhythm style did not catch on, losing out to that worthless "enjambed prose" nonsense: applemansmiscellany.blogspot.co.nz/2015/04/ideological-poem-in-sprung-rhythm.html

[@videocurios]

Trent Appleman Thanks Trent Manley Hopkins was born in Stratford East London not far from me,but apart from a slab of rock outside Stratford Public Library with a plate to commemorate him he is forgotten by this shitty borough of London who would rather pay homage to gangster rappers. Kind Regards Jim Clark

[@trentappleman4597]

There is an old saying which is very comforting to me: "The heights remain inviolable"... No matter how much they trash the stuff that is immediately accessible to them, they will not notice that which is above all of that. They would have to get the important stuff in order to notice it, and notice it in order to trash it. I am often frustrated, looking at the lives of people like Hopkins, because the limitations that they faced were so unusual in a way that most would hardly regard them as such at all. How would the average person unschooled in prosody in its subtler aspects understand the... contempt or at any rate the lack of due respect Hopkins would have faced from literati in his time? Literati are not forgiving of dissension from the going school. Indeed, he may even be well known now, as far as a poet can be well known in our day, but the intricacy of his music is still lost on the "award-winning poets" of our day... or they would more evidently have learned from him in practice! It amuses me sometimes to see "Modernism" neatly marked as a movement beginning in the early 20th century... for people like him and Emily Dickinson were already there, and writing more positively to boot, rather earlier...

[@videocurios]

Trent Appleman Well Said Trent I hope you have visited my poetryreincarnations channel where great poets & Literary figures live again via the wonders of computer animation kzbin.info/door/ZT0grhJ-VQDPLoV14F-ivQ

[@jeremyyoung1386]

+videocurios yes it's sad but that's what being 'progressive' is - and one doubts if the idiots up the council have a tick box for art

[@videocurios]

+jeremy young I wouldnt call Rap as progress,but I would call Newham Council idiots ha ha.

[@soeoeoe1645]

I don't understand how learning Welsh could be considered a self-indulgence. Could anyone explain?

[@videocurios]

Its rather like poking yourself in the eye with a sharp stick that sort of self indulgence ha ha

[@daigreatcoat44]

I suspect that Hopkins enjoyed learning Welsh, and in his asceticism regarded that enjoyment as self-indulgence.

[@benwhitworth8881]

Hopkins was at St Beuno's to train for his mission as a Jesuit priest. Learning Welsh in order to minister among a Welsh-speaking flock would have been dutiful; learning it in order to study Welsh poetry would have been a distraction. Personally I think learning Welsh would be a heavy penance, whatever one's motivation, but I think I understand Hopkins' point of view!

[@Nemo_Anom]

For all the talk of how isolated Hopkins was, I'm a bit disappointed this documentary didn't talk about his homosexuality. It's beyond extreme to go from a middle-class brilliant student with an exceptionally bright future to "changing" faith (the interdenominational Christian spats are beyond trivial) and becoming not only a priest but a Jesuit as well. Hopkins was running from himself and from an age that would not accept him. He was always separated from his society because of who he was, and this documentary failed to actually cover it.

[@videocurios]

Your not wrong,but in 1986 when this was made discussion of homosexuality on the Beeb wasnt quite as free and easy as today and Thatchers clause 28 (1988) which all but outlawed the discussion of homosexuality in schools wasnt far from reaching the statute book. With all the skeletons in the cupboards of the Beeb and the Political arena not to forget the church surrounding this subject,and the probable debarring of this being shown in schools discussing the Brilliant,but flawed Hopkins's sexuality wasnt on the cards,but this is till a powerful and derfintive documentary on this unique and brilliant poet.

[@cufflink44]

Theo Smith If I'm not mistaken, the Jesuits deny to this day the obvious fact that Hopkins was a repressed homosexual.

[@videocurios]