"The Wreck of the Deutschland" and Hopkins' Theology of "News"

Critics have interpreted Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem, 'The Wreck of the Deutschland' as a failed religious allegory but, in doing so, have failed to recognize its articulation of Hopkins' unique theology. Hopkins saw the world as the physical embodiment of God's message, as a linguistic entity. The poem takes this theology and relates it through the eyes of the tall nun and the poet who is caught between his own poetic message and God's. The work is much more than a religious allegory in that it calls for English conversion back to Roman Catholicism and therefore is a powerful evangelical work.