This book analyses the themes of anxiety and transience in the poetical thought of Gerard Manley Hopkins, a prominent 19th-century poet. The book argues that, despite Hopkins’s strong religious beliefs, his artistic vision and quest for an original aesthetic were the foremost concerns in his poetry. The author examines Hopkins’s early interest in transience, which he later developed through the influence of the philosopher Duns Scotus and the aesthetic critic Walter Pater. In the second half of the book, the author employs Martin Heidegger’s philosophy to deepen our understanding of...