Nothing is so beautiful as spring - when weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush; Thrush's eggs look little low heavens, and thrush through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring the ear, it strikes like lightning to hear him sing.

The interest was supported by his uncle Edward Smith his great-uncle the professional artist Richard James Lane and many other family members. Newman received him into the Church on 21 October 1866. It is similar to the "rolling stresses" of Robinson Jeffers another poet who rejected conventional metre.

Gerard Manley Hopkins (28 July 1844 – 8 June 1889) was an English poet Roman Catholic convert and Jesuit priest whose posthumous fame establiGerard Manley Hopkinsd him among the leading Victorian poets. His experimental explorations in prosody (especially sprung rhythm) and his use of imagery establiGerard Manley Hopkinsd him as a daring innovator in a period of largely traditional verse.