Written in 1879 by Gerard Manley Hopkins, “Peace” is a curtailed sonnet depicting the thoughts and feelings of the speaker. Consisting of two stanzas totaling 11 lines written mostly in alexandrines, “Peace” was first published in Poems in 1918 after the death of the author. The text uses various literary techniques, such as metaphor, alliteration, and assonance, to connect with readers and urge them onward throughout the poem. Hopkins wrote the work while England was fighting wars on three fronts: Africa, Afghanistan, and Ireland. While the world experienced national, social and political conflict, Hopkins endured individual and internal turmoil regarding moving cities as part of his ministry. A writer of the Victorian era known for his uniqueness and literary ingenuity, Hopkins wrote the work in order to question the exclusive nature of peace and to explore the connection between peace and God. The poet argues that, rather than reprieve, “Peace” offers the potential for personal growth and healing if properly maintained.

Poet Biography

Gerard Manley Hopkins was born into a wealthy family on July 28, 1844, in Stratford, Essex, in England, where he was the oldest of nine children. His father, Manley Hopkins insured shipping vessels and published his own poetry as well. Hopkins’s family moved from Stratford to Hampstead, another London suburb in 1852, where the young poet attended Highgate School. In 1863, he received a scholarship and began studying classics at Balliol College in Oxford.

Hopkins became interested in Catholicism after experiencing a religious crisis and reading Apologia pro via sua (1864) by John Henry Newman. Hopkins converted to the Roman Catholic faith, and wished to enter the priesthood himself. When he began a program at the Jesuit religious institution (the Society of Jesus) in 1868 where he would study to become a priest, he burned all of his previous writings, since he vowed to never write poetry again “unless it were by the wish of my superior.” He did not want his poetry to interfere with his religious devotion and studies.

Up until 1875, Hopkins kept a journal where he noted “responses to nature” and his unique, philosophical musings. He would later find a kindred way of thinking in the medieval philosopher Duns Scotus. Specifically, Hopkins developd a philosophy that centered on the individuality of natural things, or an “inscape.” Hopkins began to write poetry again in 1875 while he studied theology at St. Beuno’s College in Wales. When a German ship named the Deutschland wrecked by the Thames with numerous casualties, including five nuns, he composed the poem , “The Wreck of the Deutschland” (1875), which is unique in its application of “sprung rhythm”. Hopkins himself created this metrical system that is composed of one- to four-syllable feet that start with a stressed syllable in order to more accurately reflect casual speech. Between 1875 and 1877 Hopkins wrote eleven sonnets ranging from musings on nature to beliefs about God. Any poetry that Hopkins wrote was simply enjoyed by family, friends and acquaintances.

Ordained in 1877, Hopkins taught and preached throughout England and Scotland. While he traveled and taught, he continued to write, producing such works as “The Loss of Eurydice” (1878) and “Binsey Poplars” (1879). In 1884, Hopkins took a position as a Greek language and literature professor in Dublin at the Royal University College. The depression he suffered in 1885, partially due to his declining health and lack of respite from work, is evident in the poetry written at this period as well, as his work engaged with darker themes. The sonnets which Hopkins wrote during this time are referred to as the “terrible sonnets” due to their darker outlook.

Hopkins died of typhoid fever (which was then ravaging Dublin) on June 8, 1889. At the time of his death, he left unfinished his analysis of St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises (1548). His poetry would eventually be published posthumously as Poems in 1918 by Robert Bridges, Hopkins’s friend and fellow poet. Hopkins held great significance as a poet in the 1930s and 1940s when he was considered a harbinger of Modernism.

Poem Text

When will you ever, Peace, wild wooddove, shy wings shut,

Your round me roaming end, and under be my boughs?

When, when, Peace, will you, Peace? I’ll not play hypocrite

To own my heart: I yield you do come sometimes; but

That piecemeal peace is poor peace. What pure peace allows

Alarms of wars, the daunting wars, the death of it?

O surely, reaving Peace, my Lord should leave in lieu

Some good! And so he does leave Patience exquisite,

That plumes to Peace thereafter. And when Peace here does house

He comes with work to do, he does not come to coo,

He comes to brood and sit.

Hopkins, Gerard Manley. “Peace.” 1879. Poets.org.

Summary

Hopkins’s poem opens with a metaphor comparing “Peace” (Line 1) with a dove. The dove is elusive and free, unattainable for the speaker and constantly closed off with its wings pulled tightly around it. The speaker repeatedly questions and demands of “Peace” (Line 1) when it will finally cease skirting the edges of their universe and come to rest with them. The speaker acknowledges that “Peace” (Line 1) at times may only be fragmentary and inconclusive rather than absolute. The speaker also questions what kind of pure and absolute peace would permit war and suffering.

In the second stanza, the speaker acknowledges the grace of God in granting individuals with “Patience” (Line 8) to persevere through to “Peace” and finally attain this virtue. In line nine, when peace finally does arrive, the speaker notes that this peace requires “work to do” (Line 10). In contrast to the “Peace” (Line 1) of the first lines of the poem, this peace will “brood and sit” (Line 11), rather than coming to “coo” (Line 10) passively.