Gerard Manley Hopkins' terrible sonnets

A detailed Summary of Gerard Manley Hopkins' terrible sonnets

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 stro

What hours, O what black hours we have spent

I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day.

This night! what sights you, heart, saw; ways you went!

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 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 uncom

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Approximate Word count = 1532
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English