Gerald Manley Hopkins’s Ecosophical Lament

Abstract

This essay focuses on Gerald Manley Hopkins’s poetical lament in response to the ecosystem being attacked and devastated by the Victorian industrial revolution. The exploitation of natural resources resulting in the destruction of our environment emanates from a ‘dominator’ idea of economy as unlimited growth. My approach to Hopkins’s poetry, in line with the Partnership Studies Group research work, is tied to Eisler’s biocultural partnership-dominator model, Panikkar’s ideas on ecosophy, Capra’s contemporary systemic science, also in his interaction with Mancuso’s investigations on plant biology. This methodological background is meant to go beyond traditional binary oppositions and focus more on interdisciplinary partnership perspectives, in their different representations of the natural world and life, including all so-called sentient and non-sentient beings. Hopkins was well aware of the importance of literature and art to address contemporary issues in order to inspire, educate and transform and did so through his poetry.