The Geometry of Grief:

A detailed Summary of The Geometry of Grief:

Analysis of Poems by Denis Johnson and Gerard Manley Hopkins

Among the most potent subject matter for any writer is grief. In secret, in the dark, we have all felt a pain too powerful to convey. It is for this reason that describing a poem as mournful is generally a compliment. Why do we rave about books and films that make us cry? We love these works because they give us a glimpse into another soul, one with some of the same problems and vulnerabilities as we have. We cry with artists because they are like us: imperfect. We cry and wipe away tears and go on to smile again. The reconciliation that comes after a time of mourning is rejuvenating. There is sometimes a feeling of such cleansing after crying as to make one wonder if happiness is all it is cracked up to be. To touch upon the subjects of grief and its reconciliation or lack thereof are among the poet's chief concerns. Denis Johnson's poem, "Sway," and Gerard Manley Hopkins' "No worst, there is none. Pitched past pitch of grief" are examples of how poets of different eras deal with the sorrow inherent in human life.

Denis Johnson's title, "Sway," is an interesting metaphor that attempts to sum up his feelings concerning grief and hap

Again unlike Johnson, Hopkins questions his audience concerning the degree to which they can understand this suffering. He describes the mind as a mountain with "cliffs of fall / Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed" (Hopkins 9-10), going on to say, "Hold them cheap / May who ne'er hung there" (Hopkins 10-11). One might wonder if in this line Hopkins does not underestimate his audience. Even kings and queens have felt these pangs at some point. The exclusivity that the speaker gives this sorrow is at once truthful to his/her state and mistaken about the reality of grief in the world. There is not, nor will there ever likely be a faction of humanity untouched by grief. One might argue that there are none who have "ne'er hung" on these cliffs. At the same time, who among us has not, in a state of anguish thought that no one ever felt pain so deep? The speaker's irrationality reminds us of our own in the same mournful state. The speaker's implication that we may not have felt this same pain encourages us to acknowledge that we have.

Hopkins' and Johnson's ideas of grief are no doubt shaped in part by the eras in which they lived. Hopkins' is a more dramatic view of grief resulting from the dramatic tone of much of the subject matter of his era. He and poets of the same era including Tennyson, Wordsworth, and Shelley to name a few, were known in part for dramatic characterizations of love, honor, and grief. This tendency of his contemporaries to describe major literary themes in grandiose terms no doubt plays a part in why Hopkins' view of grief in this poem is so remarkably bleak with absolutely no hope of recovery. As I have already suggested, this fact might also be attributed to idea that the poem is intended merely as a glimpse of an irrational extreme of a particular emotion.

In contrast to Johnson, Hopkins does not tell us from whence this intense pain comes. His poem acts more as a snapshot of a soul in its most broken state. We do not know why Hopkins' speaker grieves, only that he does. The speaker's pain is perhaps most beautifully illustrated in the lines that read, "My cries heave, herds-long; huddle in a main, a chief / Woe, world-sorrow; on an age-old anvil wince and sing - / Then lull, then leave off" (Hopkins 5-7). His pain is a pounding of hammer against anvil in his mind, each collision depleting his spirit, sparks of his former self flying away.

The alternate connotation of sway leaves less room for optimism. When one sways, it is from lack of control. Swaying is a result of a powerful force acting on a less powerful entity. Like field of barley swaying in the wind, the speaker is helpless to change the movement of his/her own life. The only other mention made of the movement of the speaker is when

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Approximate Word count = 1862
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History