HOPKINS, BARNES, AND THE 'TEUTONIZERS': THE ROLE OF WILLIAM BARNES AND THE ANGLO-SAXON PURISTS IN THE FORMATION OF GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS' POETIC LANGUAGE

In November 1882, Hopkins wrote of his interest in William Barnes, perhaps the most extreme of the nineteenth-century Anglo-Saxon purists. Hopkins had just finished reading Barnes' An Outline of the English Speech-Craft, and he commented to Bridges: "It makes one weep to think what English might have been; for in spite of all that Shakespeare and Milton have done with the compound I cannot doubt that no beauty in a language can make up for want of purity.".;This study begins with an overview of Victorian philology in general, and of Anglo-Saxon purism in particular, especially as they may have influenced or supported Hopkins' own language theories. These language theories themselves, as they appear in Hopkins' notes, journals, letters, and devotional writings are also examined.;The culmination of Hopkins' relationship with Anglo-Saxon purism is the poetry itself. While the majority of such innovation is displayed in the mature verse, the early poetry is also scrutinized for traces of later language usages; these include the use of non-standard English words, dialect, and words specialized for crafts and trades; the emphasis upon the original meanings of words; the use of words outside their usual grammatical roles; the use of words phonaesthetically or etymologically related; the use of compounds; and the use of non-standard syntax. These techniques are displayed in two of Hopkins' most original pieces, "Tom's Garland" and "Harry Ploughman.".;The study concludes with an assessment of the influence of Barnes and the Anglo-Saxon purists upon Hopkins, an influence which pervades the poet's use of the word. Hopkins lived at a time of great philological concerns, concerns which assist him in expressing the indwelling of meaning in the word and in the world. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.).;Hopkins' relationship with Anglo-Saxon purism, especially with the tenets of such "Teutonizers" as Barnes, Muller, Trench, and Marsh, and the role which this relationship plays in the formation of his poetic vocabulary throughout his career are the subjects of this study. For, despite Hopkins' apparently late initiation into the mysteries of the Anglo-Saxon language itself, his interest in the linguistic theories of the purists is evident even in his earliest notes and diaries.