Interdisciplinary Poetry: Hopkins in the 21st Century

In the 21st century, the recognition of the failure of categorization is a prominent subject is any field of study. Interdisciplinary studies are increasingly popular because one category simply is not enough to fully understand and analyze any given topic. Manley Hopkins is the same in this sense. He is a religious poet and yet he communicates this through nature. He resists categorization because he is not a religious poet or a naturalist; he is both. This is what makes him so undeniable unique. This poems are examples of the beauty of tension. The tension between his two passions is prevalent in his work, but this is what makes it so important. When Hopkins uses a bird to describe the beauty of God in his famed poem The Windhover, he is not just describing the splendour of God, he is describing that of the bird as well. This beauty is unique and singular but is present in all parts of the world. This way of looking at the world, through not just one lens but multiple ones, creates a deeper meaning. This meaning is more complex and in the world we live in today it is increasingly necessary. Hopkins serves as an example to proto-interdiscplinary thinking that everyone can benefit from.