Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Hopkins: No worst

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89). Poems. 1918.
Do you feel down, there is no better poet then my favourite Gay Jesuit, whom I have loved since high school.


‘No worst, there is none. Pitched past pitch of grief’


NO worst, there is none. Pitched past pitch of grief,
More pangs will, schooled at forepangs, wilder wring.
Comforter, where, where is your comforting?
Mary, mother of us, where is your relief?
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. Fury had shrieked ‘No ling-
ering! Let me be fell: force I must be brief’.

O the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall
Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed. Hold them cheap
May who ne’er hung there. Nor does long our small
Durance deal with that steep or deep. Here! creep,
Wretch, under a comfort serves in a whirlwind: all
Life death does end and each day dies with sleep.


but his book,or see him for free at Bartleby.

No comments: