Editing Gerard Manley Hopkins (section)

===Use of language===
Hopkins was a supporter of [[linguistic purism in English]]. In an 1882 letter to [[Robert Bridges]], Hopkins writes: "It makes one weep to think what English might have been; for in spite of all that Shakespeare and Milton have done... no beauty in a language can make up for want of purity."<ref>{{cite book|first=Nils |last=Langer|author2=Winifred V. Davies|title=Linguistic purism in the Germanic languages|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|date= 2005|page= 328}}</ref> He took time to learn [[Old English]], which became a major influence on his writing. In the same letter to Bridges he calls Old English "a vastly superior thing to what we have now."<ref name="BROOK-1">[[George Leslie Brook|Brook, George Leslie]] (1955). ''An Introduction to Old English'', Manchester University Press, p. 1.</ref>

He uses many archaic and dialect words but also coins new words. One example of this is ''twindles'', which seems from its context in ''Inversnaid'' to mean a combination of ''twines'' and ''dwindles''. He often creates compound adjectives, sometimes with a hyphen (such as ''dapple-dawn-drawn falcon'') but often without, as in ''rolling level underneath him steady air''. This use of compound adjectives, similar to the Old English use of compound nouns via [[kennings]], concentrates his images, communicating to his readers the [[instress]] of the poet's perceptions of an [[inscape]].

Added richness comes from Hopkins's extensive use of [[alliteration]], [[assonance]], [[onomatopoeia]] and [[rhyme]], both at the end of lines and internally as in:

{{Blockquote|<poem>
As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
</poem>}}

Hopkins was influenced by the [[Welsh language]], which he had acquired while studying theology at [[St Beuno's Ignatian Spirituality Centre|St Beuno's]] near [[St Asaph]]. The poetic forms of [[Literature of Wales (Welsh language)|Welsh literature]] and particularly [[cynghanedd]], with its emphasis on repeating sounds, accorded with his own style and became a prominent feature of his work. This reliance on similar-sounding words with close or differing senses means that his poems are best understood if read aloud. An important element in his work is Hopkins's own concept of ''inscape'', which was derived in part from the medieval theologian [[Duns Scotus]]. Anthony Domestico explains,<blockquote>Inscape, for Hopkins, is the charged essence, the absolute singularity that gives each created thing its being; instress is both the energy that holds the inscape together and the process by which this inscape is perceived by an observer. We instress the inscape of a tulip, Hopkins would say, when we appreciate the particular delicacy of its petals, when we are enraptured by its specific, inimitable shade of pink."<ref name=Domestico/></blockquote>

"[[The Windhover]]" aims to depict not the bird in general, but instead one instance and its relation to the breeze. This is just one interpretation of Hopkins's most famous poem, one which he felt was his best.<ref name="ER"/>
{{Quote box |align=right |quoted=true |bgcolor=#FFFFF0 |salign=right
 |quote=<poem>

I caught this morning morning's minion, king-
 dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
 Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
 As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
 Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird, — the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!</poem>
 |source = The first stanza of "[[The Windhover]]" <br />written 30 May 1877, published 1918.<ref>{{Cite web| url = http://www.bartleby.com/122/1000.html#12| title = – ''The Windhover''| date = 30 December 2022}}</ref>
}}

During his lifetime, Hopkins published a few poems. It was only through the efforts of Robert Bridges that his works were seen. Despite Hopkins burning all his poems on entering the Jesuit novitiate, he had already sent some to Bridges, who with some other friends, was one of the few people to see many of them for some years. After Hopkins's death they were distributed to a wider audience, mostly fellow poets, and in 1918 Bridges, by then [[poet laureate]], published a collected edition; an expanded edition, prepared by [[Charles Williams (UK writer)|Charles Williams]], appeared in 1930, and a greatly expanded edition by [[William Henry Gardner]] appeared in 1948 (eventually reaching a fourth edition, 1967, with N. H. Mackenzie).

Notable collections of Hopkins's manuscripts and publications are in [[Campion Hall, Oxford]]; the [[Bodleian Library]], [[University of Oxford|Oxford]]; and the Foley Library at [[Gonzaga University]] in [[Spokane, Washington]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://researchguides.gonzaga.edu/c.php?g=67720&p=436824 |title=LibGuides: Manuscript Collections: Hopkins |last=Plowman |first=Stephanie |website=researchguides.gonzaga.edu  |access-date=4 December 2018}}</ref>