Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)
No Worst, There is None
1No worst, there is none. Pitched past pitch of grief,
2 More pangs will, schooled at forepangs, wilder wring.
3 Comforter, where, where is your comforting?
4Mary, mother of us, where is your relief?
5My cries heave, herds-long; huddle in a main, a chief-
6 Woe, wórld-sorrow; on an áge-old ánvil wínce and síng --
7 Then lull, then leave off. Fury had shrieked "No ling-
8Ering! Let me be fell: force I must be brief."
9O the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall
10 Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed. Hold them cheap
11May who ne'er hung there. Nor does long our small
12 Durance deal with that steep or deep. Here! creep,
13Wretch, under a comfort serves in a whirlwind: all
14 Life death does end and each day dies with sleep.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: The Later Poetic Manuscripts of Gerard Manley Hopkins in Facsimile, ed. Norman H. MacKenzie (New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1991): 272-73. PR 4803 H44A6 1991 Robarts Library
First publication date:
1918
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: RPO 1996-2000.
Recent editing: 2:2002/3/14
Composition date:
1884
-
1885
Rhyme: abbaabbacdcdcd
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