Hopkins Re-Constructed

by Justus George Lawler

Justus George Lawler offers new readings of some of Hopkins's most celebrated poems in the light of historical and structuralist understanding of the poetic tradition, as well as in light of the Western religious and liturgical tradition that shaped Hopkins's imagination. These structuralist principles - particularly those of complementarity - are treated in the author's Celestial Pantomime, which John Hollander described as "an ultimate act of comprehending Hopkins." Hopkins Re-Constructed carries that act even further, thus becoming of interest to general reader and specialist alike.