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Gerard Manley Hopkins: A Companion on the Way
An introduction, in three stopping places, to the poet’s life and poetry
A reflective exploration led by Dr Jill Robson, Journal Editor of the Hopkins Society (UK)
September 20, 2025 @ 10:30 am – 3:00 pm
Dr Jill Robson is the Editor of the Journal of the Hopkins Society (UK). She is an independent scholar and writer with a particular interest in the
links between moments of heightened visual perception, in poets and artists, and their works of creative imagination: in their poetry and painting. She has a doctorate in Psychology and Philosophy and a 40 year interest in how today we might now understand unusual mystical experiences, e.g. visions, in the light of present day research. And to do so without in anyway dismissing the personal spiritual and psychological nature of these experiences. She has researched first-person accounts of visual mystical/spiritual experiences – whether from people she meets or in autobiographical writings of, for instance, St Teresa of Avila, Thomas Traherne, William Wordsworth, William Blake, Thomas Merton etc. Gerard Manley Hopkins, through his poetry, journals and letters, has been a companion to her through many life changes and events since she first met him, in the 6th Form as a (rather pious) teenager more than 60 years ago.
Hopkins has an undeserved reputation as being a ‘difficult’ poet – he certainly was an innovative one. He was, like so many of us, a man of contradictions and opposites. He has written some of the finest religious poetry, full of joy and recorded extraordinarily detailed observations of the natural world (in his journals) as well as writing the painfully truthful ‘Terrible Sonnets’ about depression, despair and desolation. His was a life of change, from being born and growing up an Anglican, through conversion to Roman Catholicism as an undergraduate to becoming a Jesuit priest as an adult. He moved around a great deal ending up in Dublin where he died in 1889 just short of his 45th birthday
The aim of this reflective day is to look at three periods of Hopkins’ life through the poetry written at that time, as a way of telling his outward story, and which gives us some glimpses into his inner spiritual journey. This will be a way to introduce Hopkins to those who know little of his poetry, but also to give participants more familiar with his work a chance to reflect on the links between his life events and his poetry. For us all, I believe that, Hopkins can continue to speak to those who know themselves to be on The Way, whether in light, or dark or confused by contractions.
There will be four talks, with a lunch break after the second:
1. Oxford: The Earnest Undergrad – Searching and Questioning
2. North Wales: Finding a Home and Joy
3. Dublin: The Professor – Overwork, Ill-health and Despair
4. Coda: The Triumph of Hope
Those attending in person are invited to bring a packed lunch or to use local retail outlets during the lunch break.
- For those unable to attend who wish to watch online or recordings later, links will be sent to ‘online’ ticket holders
- We only record the talks themselves, and not associated Q&As, discussions, or images of the live audience.
The event will be held at the Church of St Michael at the North Gate, Oxford.
Tickets are on sale now, for Attendance in person and Online/recording access.
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