Gerard Manley Hopkins: the idea of beauty

Includes bibliographical references (pages 117-123)The idea of beauty in Gerard Manley Hopkins??? poetry can be said to derive its spiritualizing force from a sacramental view of nature. That view, confirmed in his reading of Dans Scotus, enabled Hopkins to pursue beauty in the distinctive nature of each thing as it strives toward its essential perfection in God. Consequently, his theories of instress and inscape are imbued with spiritual potential. As each thing unfolds his power of ???being???, it tells of its participation in God???s eternal beauty. The highest expression of beauty, according to Hopkins, is found in man as he responds to God???s grace and he responds to him in love. The search for beauty???s ???best being??? was a lengthy process, however. During his undergraduate days, Hopkins was attracted to pre-Raphaelite aesthetics, particularly to Ruskin???s naturalistic ideal, and to the order and relationships of Platonic thought. These were later refined by the meditative mode of the Ignatian Exercises and the insights of such spiritual fathers as Duns Scotus, Thomas Aquinas, and St. Augustine. Far from suppressing his native appreciation for sensual beauty, Hopkins??? spirituality opened new levels for beauty???s being and gave his idea of beauty purposeful shape and regenerative vitality. The tension which many critics presume to find between Hopkins??? religious ascetism and his love of physical beauty can be transcended by an understanding of the sacramental vision in his poetry