''The Wreck of the Deutschland'' is a 35-stanza ode by

Gerard Manley Hopkins Gerard Manley Hopkins (28 July 1844 – 8 June 1889) was an English poet and Jesuit priest, whose posthumous fame placed him among leading Victorian poets. His prosody – notably his concept of sprung rhythm – established him as an innovato ...

with Christian themes, composed in 1875 and 1876, though not published until 1918. The poem depicts the

shipwreck A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. Shipwrecking may be intentional or unintentional. Angela Croome reported in January 1999 that there were approximately ...

of the SS ''Deutschland''. Among those killed in the shipwreck were five Franciscan nuns forced to leave Germany by the

Falk Laws The Falk Laws or May Laws (German: ''Maigesetze'') of 1873–1875 were legislative bills enacted in the German Kingdom of Prussia during the Kulturkampf conflict with the Catholic Church. They were named after Adalbert Falk, the Prussian Minist ...

; the poem is dedicated to their memory. The poem has attracted considerable critical attention,Readings of the Wreck. Ed. Peter Milward and Raymond Schoder. Chicago: University of Loyola Press, 1976. and is often considered Hopkins' masterpiece because of its length, ambition, and use of sprung rhythm and

instress Inscape and instress are complementary and enigmatic concepts about individuality and uniqueness derived by the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins from the ideas of the medieval philosopher Duns Scotus.Chevigny, Bell Gale. Instress and Devotion in the ...

Popular culture

*Hopkins's struggles while writing the poem form the basis for the Ron Hansen novel ''Exiles''. *The poem plays a major role in Anthony Burgess' third "Enderby" novel, ''

The Clockwork Testament, or Enderby's End ''The Clockwork Testament'' is a novella by the British author Anthony Burgess. It is the third of Burgess' four '' Enderby'' novels and was first published in 1974 by Hart-Davis, MacGibbon Publishers.''Novel Style: Ethics and Excess in Englis ...

'', in which Enderby pitches an idea for a movie adaptation of the poem and produces a script, only to be duly horrified when the resulting movie bears little resemblance to either his script or to Hopkins's poem. It also makes a notable appearance in Muriel Spark's novella ''The Girls of Slender Means,'' recited by the character Joanna, a budding teacher of elocution in World War II London. *Both Hopkins's efforts to write the poem and the real-life events on the ''Deutschland'' are the subject of

Simon Edge Simon John Edge (born 25 December 1964 in Chester, England) is a British novelist and journalist. Educated at the King's School, Chester, he went on to receive a master's degree in Philosophy from St Catharine's College, Cambridge and has a ma ...

's novel ''The Hopkins Conundrum''. *The first several lines of the ode are part of a relief sculpture above the door inside the Palace of Nations, the home of the United Nations Office at Geneva.

References

External links

* - includes audiobook recording of the complete poem Poetry by Gerard Manley Hopkins Victorian poetry 1876 poems Poems published posthumously {{UK-poem-stub