The Prince of Wales, Charles, has recorded verses by Catholic priest and prominent poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins, to show solidarity to Christians this Easter. According to Clarence House, Charles will play Hopkins’ poem, God’s Grandeur, on Sunday morning at a virtual service at a Catholic boarding school in Lancashire, Stonyhurst College. The Victorian clergy taught at Stonyhurt College in his lifetime.
Clarence House said:
“The Prince of Wales has recorded the Gerard Manley Hopkins Poem, God’s Grandeur, to show support for Christians around the world at Easter. Easter is the most important festival of the Christian Church, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his crucifixion, and Hopkins’s poem captures the hope and joy associated with that season.
“It will flame out, like shining from shook foil; It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil Crushed.”
Hopkins was among the most highly recognized poets of the Victorian era who converted to Catholicism. However, he quitted poetry when he chose to train to become a priest. Years after giving up poetry, the death of five nuns in a shipwreck inspired Hopkins to begin writing again. He wrote a long poem in their honor.
In 1918, his poems got published for the first time in full. This was almost 30 years after his death. He combines his words uniquely, with creative rhythmic effects, and dynamic language, which influenced some literary personalities like Dylan Thomas and WH Auden.
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