Questions and Answers
In 'No Worse, There Is None', what does the poet mean by 'world-sorrow' in the context of the poem?
The poet reflects a collective suffering experienced by humanity, feeling its weight as a personal burden.
In 'No Worse, There Is None', how does the imagery of the 'age-old anvil' contribute to the poem's overall theme?
The 'age-old anvil' symbolizes relentless suffering and torment, suggesting a painful cycle of despair without relief.
In 'No Worse, There Is None', what significance does the phrase 'Hold them cheap may who ne’er hung there' convey about understanding mental suffering?
It suggests that those who have not experienced deep mental anguish cannot truly comprehend its severity.
In 'No Worse, There Is None', what is the effect of the enjambment in the poem, particularly in relation to the line 'Let me be fell: force I must be brief'?
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Study Notes
No Worst, There Is None by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Context
- Written in Dublin while Hopkins' mental state was fragile
- Part of the 'Terrible Sonnets' due to its anguished tone
Themes
- Depression
- Suffering
- Feeling abandoned by God
- Mental anguish
Style
- Unsettling and dark imagery throughout
- Uses the Petrarchan sonnet form
- Powerful metaphors
- Personification
- Insistent repetition (anadiplosis) for emphasis
- Forceful alliteration for emphasis
- Cacophonous assonance
- Rhetorical questions
Key Quotes and Analysis
- "No worst, there is none" - no limit to the extremity of pain
- "Pitch of grief" - severity of suffering
- "Wilder wring" - emotional suffering tearing him apart
- "Comforter, where, where is your comforting?" - cry to God for comfort
- "My cries heave, herds-long; huddle in a main, a chief / Woe, world-sorrow" - metaphor of cries as herds without a shepherd
- "Age-old anvil wince and sing" - horrific image of torture
- "Then lull, then leave off. Fury had shrieked 'No Lingering!" - reference to Furies from Greek mythology
- "O the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall / Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed" - powerful evocation of mental suffering
- "Hold them cheap may who ne’er hung there" - unless you've experienced it, you can't understand depression
- "Durance deal with that steep or deep. Here! Creep, / Wretch, under a comfort serves in a whirlwind" - endurance is no match for depression, but at least life will end
- "All Life death does end and each day dies with sleep" - every day ends with sleep
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Description
Explore the themes, style, and context of Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem 'No Worst, There Is None', a part of the 'Terrible Sonnets'.
