Songwriter Grian Chatten Reads Gerard Manley Hopkins

In this episode, Grian Chatten reads “The Windhover” by Gerard Manley Hopkins. Chatten is the frontman of the Irish post-punk band Fontaines D.C., recently described by NME as “the new heroes of the rock resurrection.” The members of the group met while attending music college in Dublin and initially bonded over a shared love for Irish literature. Their second album, A Hero’s Death, has been nominated for a 2021 Grammy Award for Best Rock Album.

Gerard Manley Hopkins was an English poet and Jesuit priest who spent the last years of his life as a professor of Greek and Latin at University College Dublin. His poems were not published until 30 years after his death in 1889.

“The Windhover” by Gerard Manley Hopkins appears in Gerard Manley Hopkins: The Major Works, published by Oxford University Press.

Keep up with Fontaines D.C. on Twitter, Instagram, and at fontainesdc.com. Click here to watch the music video for “Big,” the song heard briefly at the beginning of this episode.

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