Gerard Manley Hopkins Terrible

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The six "terrible" sonnets have a strong contradiction to his earlier works. His early works were filled with beautiful scenes in nature and praise of God. His realization that he was not dedicating enough time to God allowed him to see how many other people lose sight of God. This and other experiences during the time while he wrote his "terrible" sonnets allow us to assume that the poems are his own religious confessions. "More important, however, was his sense that his prayers no longer reached God" (Benzel 371).
Hopkins life-long best friend Robert Bridges received several letters from Hopkins while he wrote the "terrible" sonnets. Hopkins wrote to Bridges that the sonnets "came to him like inspirations unbidden and against my will" (Leavis 5296). Hopkins saw in his poems the fragmentation of his capacity to represent his Christian vision adequately. Hopkins considered this poetry the "wrong" kind of poetry because the sonnets did not "manifest that penetrating ...

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Christ as well as the Holy Spirit, for not coming to his aid. Line six "woe, world sorrow; on a age-old anvil wince and sing", "is Hopkins' terrifying realization that man, rebellious creature, is unworthy of God's concern" (Mariani 60). In line six "The anvil wincing and singing and fury's shrieking force the sense of physical pain on us again and turn the screw tighter" (Benzel 382). Line nine and ten "O the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall / Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed. Hold them cheap" (ll. 9-10), refer to man's original fall and severance from God.
The last few lines uncover Hopkins relief from his despair. These lines portray Hopkins anguish by his admitting to ...

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