The Wreck of the Deutschland is a 35-stanza ode by Gerard Manley Hopkins with Christian themes, composed in 1875 and 1876, though not published until 1918.[1][2] The poem depicts the shipwreck of the SS Deutschland. Among those killed in the shipwreck were five Franciscan nuns forced to leave Germany by the Falk Laws; the poem is dedicated to their memory.
The poem has attracted considerable critical attention,[3] and is often considered Hopkins' masterpiece because of its length, ambition, and use of sprung rhythm and instress.