What would the world be, once bereft Of wet and wildness? Let them be left, O let them be left, wildness and wet, Long live the weeds and the wildness yet.

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.