Poem Analysis: Gerard Manley Hopkins' 'No worst, there is none'

Study Notes

Written by Gerard Manley Hopkins, a priest, in Dublin when he was experiencing extreme mental anguish
Petrarchan sonnet exploring themes of depression, suffering, and feelings of abandonment by God

"No worst, there is none. Pitched past pitch of grief" - extreme pain with no limit, ambiguity around "pitch" adds depth
"Comforter, where, where is your comforting?" - cries out to God, feeling abandoned, anadiplosis creates an echoing effect
"My cries heave, herds-long; huddle in a main, a chief / Woe, world-sorrow" - metaphor of cries like a herd without a shepherd, weight of burden, suffering of all mankind
"on an age-old anvil wince and sing" - horrific image of being held down and tortured without hope of amnesty
"Then lull, then leave off. Fury had shrieked ‘No Ling-ering! Let me be fell: force I must be brief" - references Furies from Greek mythology, no pause in torture, quick and malevolent
"O the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall / Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed" - powerful evocation of insurmountable mental suffering, depths of the mind
"Hold them cheap / May who ne’er hung there" - unless you've experienced it, you can't understand the horror of depression
"Durance deal with that steep or deep. Here! / Creep, Wretch, under a comfort serves in a whirlwind" - endurance no match for the depths of depression, seeking comfort in the midst of turmoil
"all Life death does end and each day dies with sleep" - only comfort is that life will end, and each day ends with sleep