Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
Because Hopkins's poems weren't published until 1918, he is often associated more with the modern poets (like Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, etc.) instead of with his fellow Victorians. Though he died you in 1889, he had a major influence on a ton of modern poets. Yep, he was that awesome. (Source.)
Hopkins converted to Catholicism, and then became a Jesuit in 1868, and burned most of his early poems, thinking that poetry would interfere with his life as a priest. Luckily for us, he started writing again after a while, so we have some good stuff to make up for what we've lost. (Source.)
Hopkins was buds with Robert Bridges, another poet who would become the poet laureate in Britain. It was Bridges who decided that the world needed to read Hopkins's poetry, and published the collection of Hopkins's poems in 1918—nearly 30 years after his friend Gerard had died. Thanks, Bob. (Source.)