Navigation
•
Home
•
Members
•
Papers
•
Forums
•
Search
•
Signup
•
Links
•
Contact Us
•
About
Top 10
Popular Essays
Rated Essays
Newest Essays
Report
Print
Add to Favorites
Report
Messages
Rate
Similar Reports
Help
Gerard manley hopkins terrible (Click to select text)
Gerard Manley Hopkins' "terrible" Sonnets In the mid 1800's a very spiritual poet was born. Gerard Manley Hopkins was born July 28, 1844 to Manley and Catherine (Smith) Hopkins, the first of their nine children (Drabble 473). His parents were High Church Anglicans, and his father had just published a volume of poetry the year before (Drabble 473). He was ordained as a Jesuit priest who wrote beautiful poetry full of thoughts of nature and harmony. Hopkins poetry was, for the most part, published after his death in 1889. Five years before Hopkins death he wrote six "terrible" sonnets revealing his inner torment and separation from God (Davie 86). These poems were written while Hopkins worked as a professor at University College, Dublin (Drabble 474). Hopkins' sonnets "No Worst, there is none" and " I wake and feel the fell of Dark, Not Day" show his mental anguish caused by spiritual agony. His job as a professor at University College required the grading of 500 examination papers, each one several pages of uninspired student translations, five to six times a year (Benzel 370). His job demanded long hours which took away time for his admiration of nature and his time for prayer. The six "terrible" sonnets have a strong contradiction to his earlier works. His early works were filled with beautiful scenes in nature and praise of God. His realization that he was not dedicating enough time to God allowed him to see how many other people lose sight of God. This and other experiences during the time while he wrote his "terrible" sonnets allow us to assume that the poems are his own religious confessions. "More important, however, was his sense that his prayers no longer reached God" (Benzel 371). Hopkins life-long best friend Robert Bridges received several letters from Hopkins while he wrote the "terrible" sonnets. Hopkins wrote to Bridges that the sonnets "came to him like inspirations unbidden and against my will" (Leavis 5296). Hopkins saw in his poems the fragmentation of his capacity to represent his Christian vision adequately. Hopkins considered this poetry the "wrong" kind of poetry because the sonnets did not "manifest that penetrating delineation, that inscaping of Christ in nature which had formerly been his joy" (Leavis 5297). Though Hopkins felt these poems were "wrong" and unwanted he also name them "inspirations" which meant that he recognized their poetic merit and their spiritual worth. His recognition of his losing touch with God in nature is a way of asking God for forgiveness (Leavis 5297). The sonnet "No worst, there is none" reveals Hopkins lowest pit of desolation and inner torment caused from his distance with God. Mariani notes the sonnet only contains only a few images of nature and is all darkness. The sonnet can be divided into two parts. The first ten lines of the poem present his despair. Lines one and two "No worst there is none. Pitched past pitch of grief / More pangs will, schooled at forepangs, wilder wring" (ll.1-2), reveal "he has touched bottom: Hopkins, like a violin string, is strung tighter to play at the higher, more piercing and metallic tone of grief" (Mariani 59). Line one "suggest an inexpressible degree of pain" (Benzel 382). Line two "turns the grief into something horrifyingly active." Lines three and four "Comforter, where, where is your comforting? / Mary, mother of us, where is your relief?" (ll. 3-4), almost admonishes the Blessed Virgin and the comforter, who is Christ as well as the Holy Spirit, for not coming to his aid. Line six "woe, world sorrow; on a age-old anvil wince and sing", "is Hopkins' terrifying realization that man, rebellious creature, is unworthy of God's concern" (Mariani 60). In line six "The anvil wincing and singing and fury's shrieking force the sense of physical pain on us again and turn the screw tighter" (Benzel 382). Line nine and ten "O the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall / Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed. Hold them cheap" (ll. 9-10), refer to man's original fall and severance from God. The last few lines uncover Hopkins relief from his despair. These lines portray Hopkins anguish by his admitting to looking forward to death as a form of relief from his intense despair. Line thirteen, "Wretch, under a comfort serves in a whirlwind: all", "seems to mean that with death there is total annihilation: But while an argument might be made for such an interpretation, it does not square with what we know of Hopkins. The line more likely means that since death is part of every life, the speaker cannot suffer forever" (Mariani 61). Line fourteen "Life death does end and each day dies with sleep", reveals "Hopkins can only crawl under his bed sheets and hope for a dreamless sleep and temporary cessation from pain" (Mariani 61). The last three lines show how Hopkins thinks "The only comfort lies in the realization that life comes to an end in death, and so must his" (Mariani 61). Though he became increasingly weary of life, even wishing for death, but he seems to have never surrendered himself to despairing of God's mercy, as Hopkins does not let go and fall into despair. The sonnet "I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day" reveals Hopkins feeling of isolation and self-hatred. The poem seems to have the directness of a prayer. I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day. What hours, O what black hours we have spent This night! what sights you, heart, saw; ways you went! And more must, in yet longer light's delay (ll. 1-4). "I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day" can be separated into two sections. The first section portrays his isolation from God. "The sonnet opens with an awakening. 'I wake' Hopkins' declares, but instead of waking to a sunrise, as would be natural, he awakens to a fallen darkness. The poem enacts the dramatic situation of a speaker stymied in the night, alone in outer darkness. Unable to sleep, he is a sole consciousness, an isolated conscience" (Smith 1612). These lines divulge Hopkins separation from the normal or common thoughts of a highly religious man. The darkness in line two represents God's disappearance and the terror of the soul that realizes its complete dependence upon him (Mariani 56). Line three and four deal with his essential self and his realization that apart from God he was nothing. Line seven "Is cries countless, cries like dead letters sent" (l. 7), "is a nightmarish simile which is unsettlingly modern; the speaker pictures himself as a lover sending love letters to his beloved who has left no forwarding address. The lines of communication are cut, and the countless letters pile up unread to gather dust in some dead-letter bin. It is up to 'dearest him' to send the speaker news of his whereabouts; in the meantime all the speaker can do is wait" (Mariani 57). Line seven was, again, a strong portrayal of Hopkins feeling of isolation and helplessness. The second part of the poem is filled with a painful self-loathing, a dark self-hatred. "He cries out, identifying himself as bile, as rancor and bitterness. He has seen himself transformed-reduced-into something acrid, a burning sensation" (Smith 1613). In line twelve "Selfyeast of spirit a dull dough sours. I see" (l. 12), he refers to the feast of Passover, made without yeast, and to purge ourselves of our self-yeast which sours the whole being. In line fourteen "As I am mine, their sweating selves; but worse" (l. 14). Hopkins reference to sweat reveals his awareness of one's own uncomfortable heat generated when God is removed (Mariani 58). In line fourteen he admits that those "bodiless souls of the lost do not admit this limitation; their suffering is forever" (Mariani 58). The last line was perhaps one of Hopkins most important lines because it informs the reader of Hopkins' awareness that others suffering is far worse. Hopkins sonnets "I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day" and "No worst, there is none" show his struggle with God in his later life. Hopkins wrote six "terrible" sonnets while working as a professor in Dublin. These sonnets expose the pain and suffering that this Jesuit priest felt. Hopkins early poetry such as "God's Grandeur" and " The Sea and the Skylark" shows his strong belief of God in nature. Hopkins strong religious beliefs were developed from his religious upbringing and his father encouraged his poetry at an early age (Drabble 473). Those combinations allow thousands of people to understand the inner torment religious doubt and despair can lead too.
Recent Board Topics
Please drop by and sign up.
[
Submit Essay
] - [
Privacy
] - [
Disclaimer
] - [
Email Us
]
Copyright 2003 EssayFarm.com