A CLOUDLESS STAR: NOTES ON A LATIN ELEGY BY GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS

Abstract

By profession, Gerard Manley Hopkins was a Classicist. From his novitiate to his death, he taught Greek and Latin at Jesuit schools in England, then at University College Dublin. Remarks in his journals and letters make clear his deep and lifelong engagement with Classics, and the influence of classical literature, particularly the work of Pindar and the Pre-Socratic philosophers, on his English poetry has been observed by numerous critics. Subject to less attention are the poems Hopkins composed in Latin, which include verse composition and translations from English. This article considers one such poem, an original Latin elegy composed in 1867, and explores its language, imagery, literary influences, and possible interpretations.