 reverend father gerard manley hopkins, s.j. (28 july 1844 â 8 june 1889) was an english poet, roman catholic convert, and jesuit priest, whose posthumous fame established him among the leading victorian poets. his experimental explorations in prosody (especially sprung rhythm) and his use of imagery established him as a daring innovator in a period of largely traditional verse. ==life== ===early life and family=== gerard manley hopkins was born in stratford, essexgardner, w. h. (1963) gerard manley hopkins: poems and prose penguin pxvi (now in greater london), as the first of nine children to manley and catherine (smith) hopkins.norman white, "hopkins, gerard manley (1844â1889)", oxford dictionary of national biography, oxford university press. his father founded a marine insurance firm and, at one time, was the british consul general in hawaii. he was also, for a time, the church warden at st john-at-hampstead. his grandfather was the physician john simm smith, university colleague of john keats, and close friend of the eccentric philanthropist ann thwaytes. a poet, hopkins' father published works including a philosopher's stone and other poems (1843), pietas metrica (1849), and spicelegium poeticum, a gathering of verses by manley hopkins (1892). he reviewed poetry for the times and wrote one novel. catherine (smith) hopkins was the daughter of a london physician, particularly fond of music and of reading, especially german philosophy, literature and the novels of dickens. both parents were deeply religious high church anglicans. catherine's sister, maria smith giberne, taught her nephew gerard to sketch. the interest was supported by his uncle, edward smith, his great-uncle richard james lane, a professional artist, and many other family members. hopkins's first ambitions were to be a painter, and he would continue to sketch throughout his life, inspired, as an adult, by the work of john ruskin and the pre-raphaelites.poetry foundation biography accessed 2010-03-18 hopkins became a skilled draughtsman and found that his early training in visual art supported his later work as a poet. his sibl
1844_births 1889_deaths 19th-century_Jesuits Alumni_of_Balliol_College,_Oxford Alumni_of_Heythrop_College Anglo-Welsh_poets Burials_at_Glasnevin_Cemetery Converts_to_Roman_Catholicism_from_Anglicanism Deaths_from_typhoid_fever English_Jesuits English_Roman_Catholic_priests English_Roman_Catholics English_poets Infectious_disease_deaths_in_Ireland People_associated_with_University_College_Dublin People_educated_at_Highgate_School People_from_Stratford,_London Roman_Catholic_writers Sonneteers Victorian_poets