Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1973 Pre-Raphaelitism in the Early Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Whitney Robert Mundt Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Mundt, Whitney Robert, "Pre-Raphaelitism in the Early Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins." (1973). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 2485. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/2485 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. 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Xerox University Microfilms 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 74-7247 MUNDT, Whitney Robert, 1936- PRE-RAPHAELITISM IN THE EARLY POETRY OF GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS. The Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Ph.D., 1973 Language and Literature, modem University Microfilms, A XEROX Company, Ann Arbor. Michigan © 1973 WHITNEY ROBERT MUNDT ALL RIGHTS RESERVED THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Pre-Raphaelitism in the Early Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of English by Whitney Robert Mundt B.S.Si, Loyola University of the South, 1958 M.A., Louisiana State University, 1961 August, 1973 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to acknowledge the assistance of the Louisiana State University Graduate School, through its Dean, Dr. Max Goodrich; its award of a dissertation year fellowship facilitated the original research for this study. I wish also to thank Dr. Donald E. Stanford, whose instruction helped in selection of the topic; and Dr. Fabian Gudas, whose suggestions improved the final manuscript. Dr. Thomas L. Watson deserves a large credit line for the soft-spoken insistence which helped shape the thesis. I would also like to express my belated gratitude to Dr. Albert J. Gelpi, who showed me the joy in poetry. And my continuing gratitude goes to my wife, Shirley, who daily shows me the poetry in joy. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENT............................................. ii ABBREVIATIONS............................................... iv ABSTRACT ................................................... v CHAPTER I. THE CIRCLE OF PRE-RAPHAELITISM...................... 1 II. PRE-RAPHAELITISM KNOWN BY ITS W O R K S .................. 14 III. HOPKINS AND HIS PRE-RAPHAELITE ASSOCIATIONS.......... 62 IV. PRE-RAPHAELITISM IN HOPKINS' EARLY POETRY............ 110 V. PRE-RAPHAELITISM AND BEYOND.......................... 163 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................... 173 VITA .................................... '"I............... 178 iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABBREVIATIONS The Letters of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Ed. Claude Colleer Abbott. 2nd ed., 1955; rpt. London: Oxford University Press, 1970. Correspondence: RWD The Correspondence of Gerard Manley Hopkins and Richard Watson Dixon. Ed. Claude Colleer Abbott. 2nd ed., 1955; rpt. London: Oxford University Press, 1970. Further Letters Further Letters of Gerard Manley Hopkins: Including his Correspon­ dence with Coventry Patmore. 2nd ed. London: Oxford University Press, 1956. JP The Journals and Papers of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Ed. Humphry House. Completed by Graham Storey. 1959; rpt. London: Oxford University Press, 1966. The editorial notes were com­ piled by House for a biography. They are the most reliable source of data on the poet's early life. The Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Ed. W. H. Gardner and N. H. Mac- Kenzie. 4th ed. London: Oxford University Press, 1967. iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT The term "Pre-Raphaelite" should not be restricted to the seven members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood or to their works. It should be widened to include those whose works were directly influ­ enced by the Brotherhood. And it may also be used legitimately to designate those whose works reflect the characteristics of Pre- Raphaelitism. For example, the original seven members of the Broth­ erhood directly influenced Christina Rossetti and William Morris, a- mong others. Their work may be called Pre-Raphaelite. Such disparate figures as Gerard Manley Hopkins, William Butler Yeats, and George Bernard Shaw never came into direct contact with the Brethren, but their work nevertheless reveals the influence of Pre-Raphaelitism. Thus it too may be called Pre-Raphaelite. The Pre-Raphaelite aesthetic is difficult to define, partly because the Brethren were individualists, not theorists. They did not restrict the meaning of Pre-Raphaelitism; they expanded it. Thus Pre-Raphaelitism is best known by its works— the characteristics and qualities of the art and poetry its members produced. The chief char­ acteristics are fidelity to nature, particularity of detail, sensuous­ ness and sensuality, religious feeling, medievalism, and pictorial and poetic qualities. Hopkins was born into a family both literary and artistic. These formative influences made him receptive to Pre-Raphaelitism. As a schoolboy he wrote prize-winning poems which revealed the influence of Tennyson and Keats— poets whose work anticipated Pre-Raphaelitism and Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. who were admired by the Brethren. At Oxford University he developed an interest in the Brotherhood and in Christina Rossetti. He met her and Holman Hunt and was encouraged to work seriously in both poetry and painting. His artwork reveals the specific influence of John Rus- kin, a close associate of the Pre-Raphaelites, as well as the influ­ ence of John Everett Millais, a member of the original Brotherhood. Hopkins transcribed a number of poems by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, a founding member of the Brotherhood, and also by his sister, Christina Rossetti. Hopkins' letters and diaries reveal admiration for other Pre-Raphaelite associates, notably William Morris, who founded the Ox­ ford Brotherhood after the model of the original group. But at Oxford Hopkins became a Roman Catholic convert on October 21, 1866. The fol­ lowing year he determined to follow a religious vocation, and on May 11, 1868, he burned his early poems, believing them in conflict with his intention to become a priest. Between then and December 1875 he wrote only two or three religious poems as called for by the occa­ sion. But in later life he began friendships with Coventry Patmore, a close associate of the original Brotherhood, and with Richard Wat­ son Dixon, a peripheral member of the Oxford Brotherhood. Thus he confirmed his lifelong interest in Pre-Raphaelitism. Hopkins' early poetry— written from 1860 to 1875— contains