Monday, May 22, 2006

Hopkins (H Fable, take 2)

The Human and the Hangnail*

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.


*Okay, so maybe that wasn't Gerard Manley Hopkins's title for that Sonnet. He left it untitled. Let's just say it's a suggestion of mine. Also, I don't know where GM Hopkins went to high school, but I have the feeling, if it had been like mine, he would have come away with the nickname "Girlie."

All joking aside, spend some time with that poem. It kicks ass!

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