The Odd Words in the Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins
Graduation Date
Summer 1949
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Document Form
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Degree Granting Institution
Catholic University of America
Program Name
Humanities
Abstract
Critics have often referred to the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins as odd and obscure; it Is not often, however, that these same critics have analyzed the poetry to determine what elements therein make for a poetry which they choose to call odd and obscure. Syntactical peculiarities, compression of thought, oddness of vocabulary have, only in a general way, been pointed to as elements contributing to this so-called oddity and obscurity. The present study is an attempt to consider Hopkins' vocabulary as one of the possible sources of the alleged oddity and obscurity of his verse; it is an attempt to determine whether Hopkins’ theory of poetry demanded the use of odd words, to determine to what extent the vocabulary of Hopkins’ poetry is made up of odd words, to determine In what ways the odd words are odd; that is, if they are obsolete, archaic, scientific, dialectal, or coined; and lastly, to determine to what degree Hopkins’ use of these words was odd.