The Caged Skylark

Before becoming a celebrated English poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins converted to Roman Catholicism and entered a Jesuit novitiate in 1867 to become a priest. He burned all his poems and didn’t resume writing poetry until 1875. “The Caged Skylark,” a sonnet written in 1877, was published in 1889, after his death. Like many of Hopkins’s poems, it reflects his connection to nature and expresses his religious faith. It also illustrates the unusual meter and inventive poetic language in his works. His originality and creativity in rhythmic effects and diction influenced major 20th-century poets, including W. H. Auden and Dylan Thomas.