Wednesday, 25 January 2012

Gerard Manley Hopkins - 'No Worst, There is None"

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.

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)

"Gerard Manley Hopkins: The Major Works" at Amazon

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