Ellsberg is most effective in her contagious love of Hopkins’ poetry... She is a true Hopkins believer and faithfully 'discharges' her devotion to the poet, whether in her celebration of 'The roll, the rise, the carol, the creation'—in poems that are in effect joyful love letters to God—or, by contrast, of the desolate beauty of the poet’s bleak 'winter world' ('To R.B.'). She understands so well that both moods speak to our condition, and in a startling language that is like none other in its 'rehearsal/ Of own, of abrupt self' ('Henry Purcell').

Margaret Ellsberg is a marvelous and sympathetic guide and commentator in this judiciously chosen compendium of his work. The author of Created to Praise: The Language of Gerard Manley Hopkins, she has thought deeply about who he was, about how he employed his “million-fueled” gifts.… Foundational and affirming of Hopkins’s theology and poetics of specificity.

Hopkins’ poetry strikes with such force that the reader seems transposed to another artistic and spiritual plane where the juxtaposition of this or that word opens up unexpected nuances of meaning.

Some of Hopkins’ finest poems are sparked by the ardor of his spiritual practices of gratitude and wonder. But inwardly the poet struggled with depression and physical weakness. Ellsberg makes the most of a mix of his poetry, letters, journal entries, and sermons to illustrate his complex life.

Both timely and original.…This book will help readers meet Hopkins directly through his own words. It offers fresh insights into the great Jesuit and Catholic poet who so dearly loved God and God’s creations, and who sang of them with glee.

I get drowsy with Descartes, nod off over Nietzsche, and am likely to keel over from Kierkegaard. But [this] was exciting. Gerard Manley Hopkins was a philosopher, and not only a philosopher but a prophet, and not only a prophet but a priest, for he saw the intimate eternal reality of all created things and called us to share the vision and knowledge that the whole world is charged with the grandeur of God.

Scrupulous, modest, obedient, and devout are words that will strike few readers as the qualities of a radical artistic genius. Yet, in a brief and thwarted lifetime, Gerard Manley Hopkins married orthodox rigor with poetic revolution.… Margaret Ellsberg approaches the poet-priest with refreshing perception. Her editing and analysis offers a nuanced portrait of the contentious beliefs and confounding decisions that defined Hopkins’ life and work.… [her] presentation of Hopkins’ life and writings is thorough, intimate, and engaging.…

In this concise but thorough collection, Ellsberg offers accessible yet scholarly introductions to [Hopkins’] poems alongside thoughtfully arranged selections from the poet’s other writings, including his sermons.… These other writings are replete with descriptions of the natural world that employ the unusual perception and expression of a gifted poet.… This is a useful volume for teachers, students, and lovers of poetry, and will also be of interest to writers, those curious about the creative process and imagination, and spiritual pilgrims of many stripes.

The Gospel in Gerard Manley Hopkins, edited by Margaret Ellsberg and with a fine introduction by California Poet Laureate Dana Gioia, focuses on Hopkins’ faith, and how it was inspired and shaped. Editor Ellsberg does this in two ways. She provides informed summaries of the major developments in his life and work, and she includes the poet’s poems, journal entries, letters, and even sermon excerpts to provide the context.… What the reader gets with this format and approach is the understanding of Hopkins’ faith in his poetic work, how the poems were written, and what was going on in his life and vocation. The net result is a wonderful introduction to the man and his poetry.

Hopkins, whose life was short and in some ways miserable, nonetheless has gifted the world with words that stir the heart and open up new ways of seeing creation. This book captures a lot of how that happened. His influence on poetry, once his work finally found its way into the public sphere, went far beyond religious writers. But early in his life he adopted as something of a personal motto that human beings were ‘created to praise.’ And, in effect, that's what he does in his poetry.

From the start Hopkins’s literary champions have been puzzled, skeptical, confused, or even hostile toward his conversion.… Ellsberg refutes these condescending views of the poet and the church. She pays a great poet the respect of taking his core beliefs seriously.… The Gospel in Gerard Manley Hopkins combines scholarly accuracy with critical acumen. Ellsberg’s extensive commentary on Hopkins’s verse and prose texts both elucidates his thought and provides illuminating context for the poems. Meanwhile she sustains her larger argument on the spiritual development of the author as a paradigmatic Catholic life of consecration, contemplation, sacrifice, and indeed sanctity.