Just Finished Reading: As kingfishers catch fire by Gerard Manley Hopkins (FP: 1918) [53pp] 

The last time I actually read, and indeed enjoyed reading, poetry was over 50 years ago. I had an old, battered hardback containing a smattering of verse and actually liked some of the works to memorize them. Five decades later I still remember bits and pieces of one by John Donne (a love poem) and ‘The Walrus and the Carpenter’ by Lewis Carrol parts of which at least I knew by heart. So, it's been a while...   

To be honest, poetry really isn’t my ‘thing’ and the reason I read it (although I did skim bits) was that it’s the next booklet in the Penguin Little Black Classics set. One of the reasons I bought this 80-booklet collection was to expand my reading especially beyond my comfort zone. Mission accomplished. Despite its size this volume contained around 30 short poems by the author. According to the minimalist blurb on the back they were considered unpublishable in his lifetime (he died in 1889) and were only published by his friend, and fellow poet, Robert Bridges in 1918. I’m guessing (very much) that they were considered too ‘modern’ or ‘experimental’ at the time and had to wait for the world to catch up. 

The poems largely fell into three categories – nature (which I liked the best although saying ‘liked’ is somewhat of an exaggeration), God (he was a priest after all) and dark depressing rumination. Even though I only read this less than two weeks ago I can barely remember any of them – except I know one was about a copse of Aspens that had been cut down where he normally took his local walks. Somewhat strangely the last 14 pages consisted of extracts from the poet's journals where he recorded the weather and the occurrences on his walks in the country plus a hiking trip with a friend in Switzerland. I thought this was the best and most interesting part of the booklet [grin]. 

So, not for me I think, although others might enjoy. More much more modern poetry to come – soon!