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Heraclitean fire: Greek themes in Hopkins

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Abstract

This article begins by examining Hopkins's study of Greek and Latin at Highgate School and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he got a First in both Mods and Greats. In 1884 Hopkins was appointed Professor of Greek at University College, Dublin, and planned—but did not complete—a large number of research projects: these included work on Homer, Aeschylus, and Sophocles. Greek themes are often found in Hopkins's creative work. Especially important in Hopkins's poems is the use of two forms of hyperbaton that derive from Greek syntax, embedded sentences and the placing at the start of a sentence material that normally comes later.

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  1. Department of Classics, University College, Galway (National University of Ireland), Galway, Ireland

    Brian Arkins

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This is a revised version of a paper delivered at the Third International Hopkins Summer School in Monastererin, Co. Kildare, in July 1990.

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Arkins, B. Heraclitean fire: Greek themes in Hopkins. Int class trad 3, 458–472 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12138-997-0011-9

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