Gerard Manley Hopkins

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844 – 1889) was born in Stratford, Essex and died in Dublin. He was a poet who was never published in his lifetime, he sketched and painted, translated Shakespeare into Latin, could write poetry in Welsh, graduated Oxford with a first class degree and, oh by the way, was a Jesuit priest. All this and he was a month shy of his 45th birthday when he died. 

When he decided to become a priest he burned all his youthful poetry, indicating his sincerity to his religious vocation. Later, he began writing again with a decided slant to religious themes. His friend, the poet Robert Bridges began to publish individual poems in anthologies after Hopkins’ death. In 1918 he decided the time had come to publish a volume of Hopkins’ collected poems. While the book was never a best seller, Hopkins was appreciated enough that he was an influence on 20th century poets such as T.S. Eliot, W.S. Auden, and Dylan Thomas.

The poem we’ll look at today is O Deus, ego amo te the title being a Latin translation of the first line.

O God, I love thee, I love thee-

Not out of hope of heaven for me

Nor fearing not to love and be

In the everlasting burning.

Thou, thou, my Jesus, after me

Didst reach thine arms out dying,

For my sake sufferedst nails and lance,

Mocked and marred countenance,

Sorrows passing number,

Sweat and care and cumber,

Yea and death, and this for me,

And thou couldst see me sinning:

Then I, why should not I love thee,

Jesu so much in love with me?

Not for heaven’s sake; not to be

Out of hell by loving thee;

Not for any gains I see;

But just the way that thou didst me

I do love and I will love thee:

What must I love thee, Lord, for then?-

For being my king and God. Amen.