Hopkins was a Jesuit priest and a poet. His poetry, a precursor to free verse, has been set to music on several occasions, and books have been written about his life, most recently Exiles, by Ron Hansen. Here's one of his more famous poems - Eugene Peterson has named one of his books after the third-to-last stanza.

By the way, Happy Independence Day, fellow Americans! I'm celebrating in the nation's capital today. 

As Kingfishers Catch Fire

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves—goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying What I do is me: for that I came.

I say more: the just man justices;
Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is—
Christ. For Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men's faces.