Hugh Chisholm

“ An ardent Roman Catholic, much of Francis Thompson's verse reminded the critics of Crashaw, but the beauty and splendid though often strange inventiveness of his diction were immediately recognized as giving him a place by himself among contemporary poets, recalling Keats and Shelley rather than any of his own day. ”

“ Among his work there is a certain amount which can justly be called eccentric or unusual, especially in his usage of poetically compounded neologisms; but nothing can be purer or more simply beautiful than “The Daisy,” nothing more intimate and reverent than his poems about children, or more magnificent than “The Hound of Heaven.” For glory of inspiration and natural magnificence of utterance he is unique among the poets of his time. ”

“ His father, a doctor, became a convert to Roman Catholicism, following his brother Edward Healy Thompson, a friend of Manning. The boy was accordingly educated at Ushaw College, near Durham, and subsequently studied medicine at Owens College, Manchester ”