What I like the most about Hopkins was his sensitivity to beauty. I find remarkable that in a period of industrialization, smog, and basically no care for beauty (the cities' landscapes were rather ugly back then), a man had took his time to write poetry about nature and the common place things -a leaf, a cloud, the rain- that he loved; he said that to value those little things is the beginning of wisdom.
It such a shame that his 'secret' poetry was ignored until his death. Society, just fearing for what is different, 'incorret' and experimental, just lost the opportunity of enjoying Hopkin's spiritual and beautiful poetry.
Hopkins's poetry gains a lot from being read complete, which is easy to do because there is not all that much of it. The language can be gnarly and difficult, because he could not resist trying for different effects, most of which I think he achieved. He is one of those creators who was unquestionably "ahead of his time" (even as he was affected by it).
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