![]() And even if you're not a religious person, you can take comfort that this awful, no-good, deep, dark depression has transformed the speaker into a better version of his former self. Take it from someone on the other side of the bad times, like the speaker of "Carrion Comfort."Īfter coming through his own bout of despair, he's not only stronger and more appreciative he actually has a better understanding of his own relationship to God. But even so, there is value in the very experience of enduring and overcoming that struggle. We admit it-sometimes finding a way to keep going in the face of a struggle can be as difficult as unraveling a double negative in a Hopkins poem. You have to figure out a way, in the words of "Carrion Comfort," to "not choose not to be." Then what happens? Once you've exhausted all your sad-face emojis and alerted your Twitter followers to how unfair life is, you'll still have to find a way to get through whatever puddles life has put in your path. No matter how full of rainbows and puppy dog tails your life may be, some day a little rain is going to fall-right into your cereal bowl. What is Carrion Comfort About and Why Should I Care?įeeling down? Caught the blues? Have a serious case of the Mondays? Of course you do-or, at least, you have at some point in your life. Whether you're hating on Dublin or just cramming for an English final, Hopkins has a feel-good poem for you that can inspire you in your darkest hour. This is really a kind of ultimate silver-lining poem, one that you could apply to any terrible time of your own. The speaker has come through on the other side of his depression, and now he sees that he's been made a happier and stronger person as a result. ![]() Unlike some of those other poems, though, this one features a somewhat happy ending. Like his other "terrible sonnets," this poem features a speaker in spiritual crisis. That's essentially what the speaker of "Carrion Comfort" acknowledges. He was a big fan of the natural world, so he hated the noise and dirt of the city (which, apparently, also included typhoid fever).Īt the same time, as a devout Catholic, Hopkins saw his depression as a kind of divine test, something sent by God to toughen up and refine his spirit. You see, after Hopkins moved to Dublin to take a job as a professor of Greek and Latin, he fell into a deep state of depression. So are they really that bad? Well, that's up for you to decide, but "terrible" here does not refer to the quality of the poems, but rather to their subject matter. It was during those last years of his life that he wrote "Carrion Comfort," along with five other poems that have come to be known collectively as his "terrible sonnets." They were first published in 1918, nearly thirty years after poor Gerard died in Dublin from typhoid fever. ![]() Luckily for us, though, he picked it up again, though none of his poems ever saw the light of day in his lifetime. He became an ordained priest in 1877 and, while he was studying for the priesthood, he even abandoned writing poetry. When he was 22, though, he took a sharp left turn from upper-class artist and converted to Catholicism. He was born in London in 1844 to a well-off family that valued the arts. This, in a nutshell (section title alert!), is the message of Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem " Carrion Comfort," which gives us a portrait of terrible trials, but also amazing resilience.Īnd Hopkins had plenty to draw from in his real-life experiences. ![]() And if it is that bad, well, that's actually a good thing.
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