Back to Basics.(poet Gerard Manley Hopkins' works and his biography, 'Gerard Manley Hopkins: A Life' by Paul Mariani)(Critical essay)

English poetry began with a vision of God. Caedmon, the first English poet whose name we know--he lived in the seventh century, in the town of Whitby--was not a poet by training. He knew so little about the art, in fact, that at parties, when guests played the popular game of improvising verses to the harp, he would always slip away and go home. After one such party, the Venerable Bede recounts, Caedmon went to the stables and fell asleep among the horses. He dreamed that a man appeared to him, demanding, "Caedmon, sing me something." When he protested that he didn't know how, the divine messenger insisted, "Nevertheless, you must sing," and gave him a subject: "Sing ...