No Worst, There Is None

A detailed Summary of No Worst, There Is None

The poem "No worst, there is none" by Gerard Manley Hopkins expresses emotions people experience in life. Hopkins shares his own cry of anguish because without God, human kind has to suffer through life. People can only depend on God, but when God is not around they have to suffer the depressing emotions that come with life. In the beginning of the poem, the speaker pities himself. He wants God's consoling support but is not receiving it. The speaker feels that there is nothing more superior then God because God can help through hard times. After questioning God, the speaker relates to the rest of human kind; and, at the end he states his solution for the pains that people have to endure.

In the beginning of the poem, the speaker tells about his life. He shows his feelings of inferiority when he states, "No worst, there is none," because he feels shame. He believes that there is nothing more worse than any of his pain. His new pangs of shame are brought out more outrageously than the forepangs: "Pitched past pitch of grief, / More pangs will, schooled at forepangs, wilder wring." "Pitched" is the feeling of grief already there and the "pitch of grief" is the present grief. The speaker is emotional because his new pain is being

The speaker persuades the reader to not grieve much because in the end it is just a waste of time. In the beginning he expresses his cry of anguish because God will not help him. Then he further expresses himself in more depth when he tries to relate with the world, and notices that he is not alone. His solution is far-fetched but it does make logical sense that we should have hope that the whirlwind of emotions will not be forever. The speaker gives hope in a negative light because at the time he is writing this poem, he is very distraught. Death will end life and without life we cannot have emotions. The speaker, being a Catholic priest, finds hope in death that he will be peaceful in heaven.

Towards the end of the poem, the speaker develops his theory of how it is the emotion of the mind that creates the depressing feelings. The quote, "O the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall," conveys the speaker's feelings that the mind has the power to take man down during unexpected times, referring to depressing times. No man can understand the sheer depths of the mountains: "Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed." People cannot understand life because they are frightened of what comes along with the consequences, so they rather hide and put up with the grief. To the speaker this is a universal, age-old woeful sorrow, and the people that have never felt this emotion should be looked down on: "Hold them cheap / May who ne'er hung here." The people that have experienced the sorrow know how horrible it is. These people know that they cannot deal with too little or too much

Some common words found in the essay are:
God Towards, Virgin Mary, God God, Manley Hopkins, , Mary Mary, relate world, poem speaker, depressing emotions, cry anguish god, beginning poem speaker, tries relate world, emotion mind, god god, anguish god, grief speaker, speaker feels, virgin mary, pitch grief,

Approximate Word count = 1064
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English