Barry Wood
This course is now fully booked. We apologize for the disappointment and hope you find the other courses of interest.
Hopkins has long been regarded as a major poet, although whether he is a radical Victorian or a proto-Modernist is still debated. Some critics settle for both.
The course will consider what many argue is his greatest single poem: “The Wreck of the Deutschland”; but the main focus will be on a selection of his shorter poems such as: “The Windhover”, “God’s Grandeur”, “Binsey Poplars”, “Spring and Fall”, “Inversnaid”, “The Alchemist in the City”, “The Habit of Perfection”, and the “Carrion Comfort” sequence of dark sonnets. The aim will be to understand the depth and intensity of his poetic achievement: his radical approach to language and form, the joys and torments of his religious beliefs as expressed in poetry, his emphasis on the importance of sound (“read it with the ears”) as much as imagery for an appreciation of his work, and his ideas about sprung rhythm, inscape/instress and haecceity. Time permitting, we will also look at 20th Century poets influenced by his work.
Recommended reading:
There is an enormous volume of criticism and commentary on Hopkins, which I will refer you to during the course, in addition to providing copies of poems for close discussion.
GM Hopkins: Poems & Prose (Penguin) is a useful selection.
Day: Thursdays Time: 10.30am-12.30
8 weeks, 3 October to 28 November 2019
(Half term break: 31 October 2019)
Venue:
Cross Street Chapel,
Cross Street, Manchester, M2 1NL
| Price | Concessions | Minimum No. | Maximum No. | |
| £85 | n/a | 8 | 16 |
Please send your MANCENT booking form with accompanying payment to the address below. If you prefer to pay through BACS, please contact the lecturer for further particulars.
Contact details: Barry Wood, 12 St. Brannock’s Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester M21 0UP email: Barrywood42@hotmail.com