Deutschland Is Wrecked on the Kentish Knock
Poet involved
What happened
The German passenger steamship Deutschland grounded on the Kentish Knock in the Thames Estuary during a blizzard in December 1875. Rescue attempts were delayed, and more than fifty people died, including five Franciscan nuns exiled from Germany. Reports described the nuns praying and calling to Christ as the ship broke apart.
Literary impact
The disaster moved Gerard Manley Hopkins to write The Wreck of the Deutschland after years of poetic silence. Its sprung rhythm, dense sound patterns and theological struggle made the wreck the occasion for one of the most innovative poems of the Victorian period.
Source: Wikipedia
