사제 시인 제라드 맨리 홉킨스는 자신의 시를 통해 언어가 가지는 특유의 음 악성을 구현해냈다. 그는 전통적인 소네트의 형식을 일부러 변형하거나 자신만 의 독특한 방식의 단어의 나열을 통해 두운을 통일하는 등의 방식을 통해 시를 창작했다. 홉킨스의 이러한 시도로 인해 그의 시는 생동감과 경쾌한 리듬감을 갖게 됐으며, 그의 시가 현대에 이르러 다시금 재조명되는 계기가 됐다. 본고에 서는 홉킨스 시의 음악성과 그로 인해 창출되는 미학적 요소를 연구할 것이다. 본 연구를 통해 홉킨스가 창조한 음악성이 사제 시인으로서의 그가 보였던 그 리스도에 대한 신앙과도 깊은 연관이 있음을 밝힐 것이다. 특히, 봄 과 황조 롱이 , 물총새에 불이 붙듯에서 나타난 기교들이 어떻게 시적 언어의 음악성 을 창출해내는지를 연구할 것이다. 세 편의 시를 분석함으로써 홉킨스의 그리스 도에 대한 깊은 신앙이 어떠한 언어적 기교와 음악성으로서 나타나는지를 밝히 는 것을 주요한 목적으로 한다.

G.M. Hopkins had stayed in Ireland for 5 years until he died and spent his hardest time in his livelihood but best time for his literature. He had converted to Catholic in his youth and became a priest at last, in spite of the objection of his family. That is a kind of ideal-searching decision but it also means a spiritual seclusion in England which is ruled by Anglican Church. As a priest he was full of humanity, love of people, especially for low class poor persons, and always felt pity for their miserable lives. And he wanted all the English people choose the real religion, Catholic, and get bettered in their spirit, but he cannot but disappointing in their vulgarity and hypocrisy. Anyhow he had very sensitive and self-conscious personality to cope with all this situation bravely. When he went to Ireland as a teacher of Greek in University College, he might have felt a kind of friendship to Irish people through their religion, Catholic. But Irish people has had deep hostility to English people because of their historical background. And there was booming a mood of nationalism against England in those days when Hopkins stayed in Dublin. Of course, it was very hard to teach Irish young students full of hostility to English people. And his health grew worse and worse. In that miserable situation, he seemed to feel a kind of desperation that God discarded him. We can find his alone and isolated situation in the sonnet “To seem the stranger lies my lot, my life“ and more deep and private sentiment in another sonnet “I wake and feel the fell of dark“. It is ironical that his hard life made him write such good sonnets. His hard life was over with the sonnet “Thou art indeed just, Lord“ where he reconciles with his God at last. In conclusion, his staying in Ireland was a good opportunity for his poetry, his literary achievement.