Gerard Manley Hopkins spent three years at a Jesuit college in Wales and White argues that they were the most important of his authorial life – perhaps his whole life. It was during this contemplative period that he wrote for the first time in seven years, was affected by the Welsh landscape, and encountered the Welsh language and its poetry which were to have such a distinctive influence on his work.During this period he wrote some of his classic sonnets, as well as what Hopkins called his rare happy poems. He wrote as well the magisterial The Wreck of the Deutschland, Hopkins’ classic statement of his belief. This is the first full-length study of this crucial period in Hopkins’ life; it includes new research and contributes substantially to a fuller understanding of this unique and popular poet. Norman White teaches at University College, Dublin (where Hopkins died), and is the author of the standard life, the Whitbread Prize-nominated Hopkins: A Literary Biography.