Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Wreck of the Deutschland

Adam White (The Open University)

Ed. by Daniel Robinson, Widener University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.07: English Writing and Culture of the Victorian Period, 1837-1901.
Vol. editors: Gillian Fenwick (University of Toronto), Jessica Gossling (Goldsmiths College, University of London)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1876

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poetry (any)

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“The Wreck of the

Deutschland

” (1875‒6; 1918) was composed after a superior of Hopkins at St Beuno’s Jesuit college in North Wales suggested someone write a poem about this maritime disaster. The SS

Deutschland

was wrecked 6-7 December 1875 on the Kentish Knock, a shoal in the North Sea. The ship contained emigrants bound for New York (via Southampton) after departing Bremerhaven in Germany. On board the ship were five Franciscan nuns, leaving Germany due to the repressive anti-Catholic Falk Laws. The number five takes on special significance in Hopkins’s poem as representative of the five wounds of Christ, “the finding and sake / And cipher of suffering Christ” (169‒170). There was a long delay before help arrived for those on the stranded vessel. The nuns and a number of…

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2107 words

Citation: White, Adam. "The Wreck of the Deutschland". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 19 March 2016 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7304, accessed 23 November 2024.]

Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Wreck of the Deutschland

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