The Wreck of the Deutschland and Gerard Manley Hopkins's Breakthrough
Poet involved
What happened
A German passenger ship named the SS Deutschland ran aground during a ferocious storm in the North Sea off the coast of England, resulting in the tragic drowning of over sixty people, including five Franciscan nuns fleeing anti-Catholic laws. Safe on land, a young Jesuit priest named Gerard Manley Hopkins read the horrific news reports. The tragedy broke his self-imposed seven-year vow of poetic silence, inspiring him to pen a massive, rhythmically radical masterpiece capturing the disaster.
Literary impact
This maritime disaster resulted in 'The Wreck of the Deutschland', the poem that introduced 'sprung rhythm' to English literature. Hopkins's radical rhythmic innovations completely anticipated modern free verse, fundamentally changing how 20th-century poets structured line meters and sonic cadences.
Source: Wikipedia
