The St. Austin Review

Sample Article A Jesuit Philosopher and a Jesuit Poet: A Thomistic Reading of Hopkins’ “As Kingfishers Catch Fire”

Gerard Manley Hopkins’ “As Kingfishers Catch Fire” ranks among the English Je suit’s most famous poems, garnering tremendous attention among literary critics as well as the general reading public (espe cially Christians). I here propose a unique addition to the interpretive discussion of this poem, as I will turn to one Jesuit as a guide to reading another. The seminal work of the American Jesuit Father W. Norris Clarke SJ (1915–2008), who ranks among the twentieth century’s most influential Thomists and metaphysicians, is an apt guide for illuminating the complexities of Hopkins’ Christological poem, “As Kingfishers Catch Fire”. There is an unusually close sympathy and convergence of thought between Father Clarke’s Thomistic analysis of the act of being and personhood and Hopkins’ poetic representation of these themes in his poem. What I offer here is a reading of “As Kingfishers Catch Fire” in the light of Father Clarke’s dynamic Thomistic, metaphysical, and personalist in sights. Bringing together the British Jesuit poet and the American Jesuit philosopher bears much interpretive fruit for readers of this poem, one rich in themes of existence, personhood, and Christology.