Carrion Comfort by Gerard Manley Hopkins (Poem, Summary & Analysis)

 

Carrion Comfort

by Gerard Manley Hopkins

(Poem, Summary & Analysis) 

Carrion Comfort

Not, I'll not, carrion comfort, Despair, not feast on thee;

Not untwist — slack they may be — these last strands of man

In me ór, most weary, cry I can no more. I can;

Can something, hope, wish day come, not choose not to be.

But ah, but O thou terrible, why wouldst thou rude on me

Thy wring-world right foot rock? lay a lionlimb against me? scan

With darksome devouring eyes my bruisèd bones? and fan,

O in turns of tempest, me heaped there; me frantic to avoid thee and flee?

 

Why? That my chaff might fly; my grain lie, sheer and clear.

Nay in all that toil, that coil, since (seems) I kissed the rod,

Hand rather, my heart lo! lapped strength, stole joy, would laugh, chéer.

Cheer whom though? the hero whose heaven-handling flung me, fóot tród

Me? or me that fought him? O which one? is it each one? That night, that year

Of now done darkness I wretch lay wrestling with (my God!) my God.

 

Summary

In the beginning of the poem, the speaker declares, that he's not going to give in to "Despair," a force that he labels "carrion comfort." He may be down and out, and the inner strands of his being may have gone slack, but he refuses to quit. He says that he can keep going. He's not going to end it and will not kill himself.

He wants to know, why a giant, crushing force like despair would be so rude as to smash him with its terrible power and subject him to violent storms. All he wants to do is make a break for it and get away from despair's awful influence. He, doesn't wait too long for an answer to his question, because he's got a guess: despair is not crushing him; it's changing him—and for the better. By surviving his struggle with this awful force, the speaker's heart has grown stronger and more joyful.

He's not sure where he should send thanks. Should he cheer for God for putting him through all this difficulty? Should he cheer for himself for surviving it all? Maybe both he and God are equally awesome in this scenario. The speaker, now, realizes that, not only was he struggling to overcome that crushing sadness, but he was also wrestling with God.

 

Analysis

Carrion Comfort represents the first stage of Hopkins’ spiritual crisis. Refusing to indulge in despair, the poet asserts himself. The poem opens thus:

Not, I’II not, Carrion Comfort, Despair, not feast on thee;

The poet finds himself confronted with Despair but he promptly declares his resolve not to take recourse to it. The promptness of the decision is marked by the shortened verb form “II”. The poet counters the approach of Despair with a deliberate and willed effort. The word “Not,” used three times in the same line shows the poet’s determination not to seek comfort in despair. The rhythmical movement (which the poet has indicated through the use of pauses) divides the sentence into three part: Not, I’II not,/ Carrion comfort, Despair/ not feast on thee; The first part is an emphatic negation, conveying the poet’s firm refusal to abandon himself to despair. The second part presents the perception of the poet towards despair. The third part is about the rejection of sensual pleasures by the poet.

Not untwist – slack they may be – These last strands of man.

In me or, most weary, cry I can no more.

The metaphorical structure heightens the poet’s firm resolve. The “last strands of man” are the bones and veins of the poet. It conveys the idea of vital energies in him. The poet is very conscious to maintain the rhythmical excitement (the inverted word order shows it) in the poem. The rhythmical speed is increased by transposing the verb “cry” before the pronoun “I”.

….. I can;

Can something, hope, wish day come, not choose not to be.

The poet will not helplessly cry – “I can do nothing now”. He can still do something. He can even now feel some hope for the day to come when he will get himself free from the nights of depression and despondency. The pauses mark the rhythmical pattern in the line. The modal auxiliary ‘can’ stands out and becomes quite prominent as a marker of Hopkins’ capabilities. To increase the rhythmical pace, Hopkins deletes “merely grammatical and toneless” words and uses shortened form “wish day come” (and not “wish that day will come”). Then among the several negatives in the first four lines stands the simple assertion “I can”, an assertion which is reinforced by the double negative “not choose not to be”. The phrase establishes a direct link with the first line (compare “not feast on thee” in first line with “not choose not to be”).

But ah, but O thou terrible, why would thou rude on me.

The wring – world right foot rock?

Whereas the first four lines are addressed to Despair, the next four are addressed to Christ or to God. After rejecting despair, the poet now turns to Christ. At first, he sees Christ as a terrible monster (thou terrible) and feels himself rocked to and fro somewhat harshly by His right foot which wrings the world. Line five expresses Hopkins’ surprising shock. The exclamatory interjection (“ah” and “O”) and the connective “but” (used twice) occur side by side. It brings home the feelings of surprise mingled with shock. The rhythmical movement does not flow at the same pace. In the first half of the sentence, (“But ah, but O thou terrible.”) it is slackened after the exclamatory interjection. But, then, it is heightened through a direct question addressed to the creator. The packed structure of the phrase “Thy wring-world right foot” intensifies the movement. It seems that the poet is in a haste to end the line.

…….. lay a lion limb against me? Scan

With darksome devouring eyes my bruised bones ?

The lines are in continuation with the series of interrogative which began from line four. Hopkins asks God: Why is He so cruel to him? Why is he subjected to brutal treatment? Why should Christ, lion-like, threaten to devour him? The poet feels that the lion-like Christ is scanning his bruised bones with eager eyes that seems to devour him in a moment. The lines are significant as they present Christ, the combatant, in terms of cruelty. To present the incomprehensible and unique cruel image, Hopkins invents unique deviant structures, like, “lionlimb,” “devouring eyes,” “brusied bones.” Chirst is presented as a “lionlimb” (the poet has the feeling that God or Christ is like a lion putting a limb or a claw against the poet menacingly. The comparison of God with a lion is Biblical) with “devouring eyes” who menacingly scans the poet’s “bruised bones.”

…… in fan,

O in turns of tempest, me heaped there, me frantic to avoid thee and flee?

Christ, the poet goes on to say, is coming towards him like a mighty whirlwind. The poet is heaped like a pile of grain, and against this pile, the whirlwind of Christ will blow like a winnowing wind. As this whirlwind is like a scourge for the poet, he is anxious to avoid it and flee from it. Here, the word “fan” is used as a verb to mean “toss violently against the wind,” or “blow against”. The word is linked with “me” in the next line. Thus, the full sentence can be read as “Why would thou fan me, heaped there”. The repetition of the hard sound “t” (in “turns” and “tempest”.) intensifies the effect of cruelty, meted out to the poet by the Almighty. The pauses (commas) weaken the rhythmical excitement at certain intervals to fully unfold the metaphorical images which knit the texture of the poem. (e.g. “tempest”, “me heaped there”, etc.) The images forcefully convey the idea that Hopkins is battling an enemy who is the most powerful Being in the Universe.

Why? That my chaff might fly; my grain lie, Sheer and Clear.

The Sestet sets in a shift from protest and defiance to affirmation. Here, the tempest, symbolizing divine wrath, is treated as a process by which the poet is to be purified.

Hopkins recognizes his enemy’s truly unselfish motivation. The battle is fought so that the poet’s chaff might fly and his grain be left sheer and clear. The interrogative “why?” rings like an alarm, and enables Hopkins to perceive the presence of divine grace throughout the conflict.

Nay in all that toil, that coil, since (seems) I kissed the rod,

Hand rather, my heart lo! lapped strength, stole joy, would laugh, cheer.

The lines present a paradoxical situation. In the very act of kissing the rod and thus accepting God’s punishment, the poet will feel strengthened by an unexpected feeling of joy. Amid the toil and coil, or the suffering and ordeals, the poet will recognize not only that rod but God’s hand which holds that rod. Thus, the poet will see the warmth of love behind God’s wrath; he will then feel like laughing and cheering. “Nay” used as an adverb suggests that that is not all. There is something stronger than what has just been said. The paradox in the line means that amid the ordeal the poet will recognize not only the rod but also the hand which holds that rod. The paradoxical sense is intensified in the lines by the use of shortened verb form “lo!” (Instead of “look”). The result of kissing the rod is heightened by exploiting the deviant structures “lapped strength”, stole joy” etc. The rhythmical movement is intensified at the line end where “laugh” and “cheer” seem to go together in the heightened speech.

Cheer whom though? The hero whose heaven-handling flung me, foot trod.

Me? Or me that fought him? O which one? Is it each one?

The series of questions in these lines begin with a major rhetorical question; “cheer whom though?” and is followed by as many as four allied questions. The poet asks whom he should applaud and admire-Christ, himself or both. The series of questions show that Hopkins can no longer be patient in this state of confusion. The rhythmical movement is speeded up by the interjection “O”. The phrase “O which one?” shows that Hopkins is utterly confused.

...That night, that year.

of now done darkness I wretch lay wrestling with (my God!) my God.

Full of awe, the poet perceives the whole truth at the end of the sonnet. The movement is hastened in the heightened speech and there seems to be no gap between the equivalent structure of “that night and that year.” The poet recalls a particular night which seemed as long as a year. It was a night when he wrestled in his mind with God. “The year” becomes synonym of “that night”. Hopkins feels that he was a fool to have engaged in that conflict with God. The exclamation heightens the poet’s surprising shock and, in turn, the rhythmical movement. Thus, line fourteen conveys “what a fool Hopkins was to have engaged in that conflict with God, when he should have fallen at God’s feet in humble adoration! (The exclamatory “my God!” can be compared with the vocative “my God”). The sense of profound and appalling guilt is conveyed through the phrase “wretch”. Then the exclamation, “my God!” in the last line is the characteristic of Hopkins’ ability to make an ordinary, everyday phrase serve his purpose effectively. The phrase expresses his amazement as it does in its ordinary usage; it also marks his deeper wonder that he has really been in conflict with God and expresses his faith that God is indeed his in a very personal way: “my God!”. The poet, thus, has undergone the first stage in his spiritual crisis and has received a stress from Christ.

The alliteration is noteworthy as it provides momentum to the thought-progression in the poem. Some interesting application of the alliteration can be seen in the following lines:

With darksome devouring eyes my bruised bones?

Nay in all that coil, that toil

The phrase “dark-some devouring eyes” enhances the rhythmical speed. The use of “devouring” as an adjective is remarkable. The internal rhyme between “toil” and “coil” has Shakespearean echoes and means simply the ordeals. Hopkins uses to structure “toil” and “coil” to keep up the musical pace in the poem.

The sonnet, Carrion Comfort, is a masterpiece. The restless weaving of alliteration and internal rhyme, the constant shift of pace and mood, all capped and closed by the last memorable lines are noteworthy.

The metaphorical structures knit the texture of the sonnet. The style is metaphorical throughout. The comfort which comes from Despair is called “carrion comfort”. The phrase “these last strands of man” is used to convey the idea of vital energies in man, i.e., the bones and veins bound with the fibers of man’s spiritual being (“last” because the poet’s resistance was on the verge of collapse when he recovered his balance). “Thou terrible” is metaphorically used for “Christ”, or “the punitive aspect of God”. The word “tempest” is metaphorically used for “divine wrath”. “Chaff” and “grain” are metaphorically used for “impurities” and “solid merit” respectively. Similarly “toil” and “coil” metaphorically convey the afflictions, the ordeal and the tumult of feelings which the poet has gone through before he is able to reconcile himself to God. All these metaphorical phrases convey vivid and appropriate images to our minds. The metaphorical structures concretize the image of Christ, and the readers can perceive it happening before their eyes.

The most significant thing about his sonnet is the application of Sprung rhythm. The use of Sprung, rhythm, outriding feet, and ‘long six-stress lines’ gives the sonnet an unusual breadth and complexity. Quite contrary to the standard rhythm, we find fifty-one syllables instead of forty in the first four lines. The use of packed phrases is remarkable in the following line:

Can something, hope, wish day come, not choose not to be

The initial “can” serves the purpose of a proforma for the following phrases (“hope”, wish day come,” “not choose not to be.”)

In brief, the sonnet is a rhetorical masterpiece. The poet manages to articulate the feeling of frustration, self-loathing and despair through condensed, and integrated artistic structures.