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Why Gerard Manley Hopkins gave up poetry for Lent

Why did the English poet, Catholic convert, and Jesuit priest Gerard Manley Hopkins decide to give up poetry for Lent?

On January 18, 1866, he composed his poem “The Habit of Perfection,” which hailed the virtue of asceticism. Five days later, on January 23, he included poetry in a list of things he planned to give up for Lent.

And by July, against the wishes of his family, he had decided to leave his native Anglicanism for the Catholic Church. Read more

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