God and two poets - Anthony Kenny

The author looks at the lives and work of Arthur Hugh Clough and Gerard Manley Hopkins considered by him to be the two most significant religious poets writing in English in the 19th century. He approaches his subjects from a new angle, namely, that of the philosopher rather than the literary critic and aims to cast fresh and revealing light on these two Victorian poets (both of whom trained in philosophical thought and poetical creation).;Their lives challenge comparison: initially parallel, they yet diverge in opposite directions. Both came from middle class Anglican families: both were educated in the same disciplines in the same institution - Balliol College, Oxford. Though Clough was the elder by a generation, they shared a number of common friends and were influenced by several of the same people.;During their time in Oxford they both underwent a religious development, but in opposite senses: Clough moved from Anglicanism towards Unitarianism and eventually agnosticism, while Hopkins moved from Anglicanism to Catholicism and found his abiding vocation as a Jesuit. The author questions how such different conclusions can be reached from such co mmon premises. Dr Kenny has written an autobiography called "A Path from Rome".