Dangerous Beauty

from Dangerous Beauty: Nancy Hartsock

Abstract: 

The notion of self-sacrifice is the dominant melody in the polyphonous symphony of priest-poet Gerard Manley Hopkins’ life and poetry. The influence of The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and the philosophy of John Dun Scotus, a thirteenth century Franciscan philosopher on Hopkins as he developed his own “theological aesthetic” are undeniable. Hopkins’ ‘theological aesthetic’, drawn from his personal interpretation of these influences, became roots for his intensely passionate and utterly unique Christian poetry. Hopkins’ uses words, literary device, and rhythm in a multi-level yet unifying way to express his Christocentric worldview. Hopkins was a brilliant Oxford scholar with ascetic tendencies who chose to convert to Catholicism, and then to become a Jesuit priest. The sacrifices of his life were costly but deliberately made, and he remained faithful to them until the end of his short life (1844-1889). His over-scrupulous personality, his understanding of sacrifice, penance and the choice to submit to discipline, unfamiliar to many Western Christians, are of monumental importance in consideration of his life and poetry. A great internal war existed between Hopkins’ aesthetic and ascetic natures; the Armageddon of this internal war was fought on the ground of his poetry.

Willing to sacrifice everything in his devotion to Christ, Hopkins came to believe that, for him, beauty was dangerous. His sole desire as a priest was to lead others into relationship with God; ironically, it was his poetry more than his priestly duties which led to the realization of his desire, posthumously.

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His ascetic nature expressed itself through an intense inner drive to master himself; his aesthetic nature was uniquely and deeply sensitive to beauty in all its forms. His art became the battleground where his final conflicts in this world were fought; the place his poetry would hold in relationship to his priesthood was the Armageddon of his inner war.

…The luminosity as well as the threateningly dark shades of self-sacrifice are revealed through Hopkins’ extraordinarily complex sacramental poetry, which was drawn straight from the depths of his personally constructed theological aesthetic. The rationale for sacrifice and the factors which led to his grave internal war can be understood through a respectful consideration of the ‘dangerous beauty’ of Hopkins’ Christian faith, which was a very costly faith consisting of both sparkling joys and ravaging agony…

With his very life, Hopkins believed that full, conscious participation in the timeless “river” of the life of Jesus (DP, S6, 111) would lead to self-sacrifice for all true believers…the costliness of faith in Christ, perhaps a costliness with which western Christians have lost touch. Written at the end of his short life, his “Terrible Sonnets” reveal the personal lengths to which his faith carried him. Hopkins’ sole desire as a priest was to lead others into relationship with God; ironically, it was his poetry more than his priestly duties which led to the realization of his desire, posthumously.

…In Hopkins: A Literary Biography, Norman White writes that on a reading-list Hopkins had drawn up for himself for vacation at this time was Pusey’s article, “Sermon on Everlasting Punishment, and on the Remedy for Sins of the Body.”

White goes on to explain that for Hopkins, “purity [was] associated with sensual

deprivation and self-inflicted punishment, but the rewards [were] forms of delayed and

spiritualized hyper-sensuousness” (113). Hopkins’ superiors found it difficult to steer

him away from “dwelling on his faults and towards the intended consolations,” according

to Catherine Phillips in her introduction to Gerard Manley Hopkins. The Major Works

(xxi)…

…“Purely selfish desires and habits  are to be mortified, that is, put to death. But the self as such is never to be annihilated,” Ong explains…

Further, his vows of poverty, chastity and obedience as a priest constituted a physical, intellectual and emotional sacrifice he chose, a choice he hoped would help him master himself. He felt called by God to the priesthood, and hoped that thrusting himself into his life and work as a priest would help him constrain his own passionate, ‘dangerous’ impulses that he was afraid had the potential to overrun his Christian faith; he was ready and willing to sacrifice these impulses on the altar of his faith in God. In a letter written in 1879 to Robert Bridges, Hopkins mentions three types of beauty…

…The physical beauty of the body Hopkins considered the most dangerous because physical beauty had the potential of leading him/us into worship of the creature rather than the Creator. Fear of his own physical passion is evident in this belief. Beauty of the mind, such as genius, he saw as a beauty of more value. Beauty of character was most desirable, “the handsome heart,” expressed through loving actions rooted in purity (Thornton and Varenne 95). In the long run perhaps the severe beauty of Hopkins’ own Christian faith may have proven the most dangerous beauty of all, for himself…

Hopkins needed the guarded permission the Jesuits gave him to move into his heart; but the guarded permission of the Jesuits was nothing compared to the over-vigilant guardedness with which Hopkins himself kept watch over his own soul.

…Hopkins’ own identification with the life, death and resurrection of Jesus was cemented by his Jesuit formation. Jesus was his beautiful hero, the one who had mastered himself perfectly. Hopkins hoped to follow this example with all his body, mind and spirit. To this end, he studied, meditated on, and lived The Exercises continually until the end of his earthly life. Hopkins had an exceptionally complex imagination, which coupled with an intense sensitivity allowed him to microscopically focus in on, ‘read’ and reproduce detail, while at the same time making meaningful relational connections between what he observed, and those with whom he strove to share his observations. This ability is perfectly illustrated in “Wreck of the Deutschland,” derived from his deeply empathetic and imaginative reading of the shipwreck in The Times, Saturday, December 11, 1875 (reprinted in Storey 99).

…In A Counterpoint of Dissonance, Michael Sprinker suggests that in “The Deutschland,” Hopkins is wrapping all the mysteries of Christianity into one (113).

…He chose an out-of-the-ordinary form (sprung rhythm) and out-of-the-ordinary mechanics for his poetry that enhance the pregnant ideas and words he chooses for his poems in such a way that some, like Philip Ballinger in The Poem as Sacrament. The Theological Aesthetic of Gerard Manley Hopkins, consider Hopkins’ poems sacraments -- both signifying and conveying the grace of God to those with ‘eyes to see and ears to hear.’ Bernard Cooke, in Sacraments and Sacramentality, offers the traditional short definition of Christian sacrament: “Sacraments are sacred signs, instituted by Christ, to give grace.” Sacraments are meant to do something, Cooke states: but “what is done is essentially God’s doing; in sacraments God gives grace” (79).