Last July, in the Jesuit archives in London, I dicovered an unknown poem by the English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, SJ (1844-89). A comic work of 48 lines, "Consule Jones" was written in 1875 to entertain his Jesuit community at St. Beuno's College in north Wales, where Hopkins was studying theology in preparation for priesthood. The date is significant: it was composed a few months before his first great poem, "The Wreck of the Deutschland," one of the finest odes in English. "Consule Jones" reveals the sounds, rhymes, rhythms, and wordplay that filled his mind at the threshold of poetic brilliance.

Its title, playing on a Latin ablative absolute, means "when Jones was rector," and the poem tells how Jones's community--Hopkins's fellow theologians--spend their leisure hours. Written as if narrated by Peter Prestage, SJ, the theologians' beadle (liaison with the rector), it shows the young Jesuits working on theology or German, practicing sermons ("tones"), hunting rabbits with ferrets, mating birds or small animals, puffing on a pipe or taking snuff, teaching catechism to Welsh children ("Taffies") while giving them sweets ("souping" is to make converts by offering food), building paths, writing sermons and diaries, and keeping bees. One man is so gentle that people joke about it, another seems terribly busy, and two blood brothers walk with the swagger of cavalrymen. A wry comment on St. Beuno's unsuccessful new heating system ends the poem.

"Consule Jones" was first "performed" (Hopkins's word) on July 22, 1875, perhaps sung by Hopkins himself. The occasion was the annual visit of the Jesuit superior from London. That day, records the vice-rector, "after dinner the community assembled at the little Rock" on the hill behind St. Beuno's "and spent the evening pleasantly with songs."

Hopkins (second from left) poses with fellow Jesuits at Campion Hall, Oxford, in 1878, three years after he wrote "Consule Jones." Photo reproduced by kind permission of the British Province of the Society of Jesus and courtesy of Gonzaga University Library Special Collections.

They surely had a good time. Since St. Beuno's is in Wales, "Consule Jones" is written to a Welsh melody--the lively "Cader Idris" (also known as "Jenny Jones")--in 3/4 time. The rhymes bring further jollity: Beuno's/my nose, true man/human, Sisyphus/busy fuss, and domicile/promise I'll. One couplet is gloriously ridiculous: "Murphy makes sermons so fierce and hell-fiery/mothers miscarry and spinsters go mad." The anapestic rhythm, two short syllables followed by one long one, adds its own verve as the lines follow or dodge the music's beat, foreshadowing Hopkins's famous sprung rhythm.

Unlike his typically serious, often anguished poems, "Consule Jones" presents an antic Hopkins who enjoyed the comic verse of Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear, W. S. Gilbert, and Thomas Hood (a Hopkins family friend). Mr. Hopkins, SJ, shows a surprising skill as both comic poet and lively entertainer.

Fr. Joseph Feeney, SJ, professor of English at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia, is coeditor of The Hopkins Quarterly. The poem is reprinted with the permission of the British Province of the Society of Jesus.