Gerard Manley Hopkins, selected poems Contents
Synopsis of I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark
Sleepless torment
This is another of the ‘terrible sonnets', written in 1885. It naturally pairs with No Worst, There is None in being about the dark night (of the soul). Whereas that sonnet finishes with the consolation of sleep, this opens with its impossibility. It is also like To Seem the Stranger, in that it is a complaint, though Hopkins calls it a lament. A lament is usually in the form of ‘Woe is....', and although there is an element of ‘Woe is me', here it is also a dialogue with an ‘absent God', disguised as a dialogue with a very present heart, about being in such a wretched state.
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Investigating I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark
- Can you see any difference between a complaint and a lament?
- If so, how would you categorise this sonnet?
A sonnet is a poem with a special structure. It has fourteen lines, which are organised in a particular manner, usually characterised by the pattern of rhyming, which changes as the ideas in the poem evolve.
An expression used to describe a period of despair and doubt by a believer which is ended by renewed hope.
In literature, a sub-genre where the writer objects or protests about something.
Expression of grief. A lament is a literary form used to express grief and sometimes questioning caused by a crisis.
The Bible describes God as the unique supreme being, creator and ruler of the universe.
A sonnet is a poem with a special structure. It has fourteen lines, which are organised in a particular manner, usually characterised by the pattern of rhyming, which changes as the ideas in the poem evolve.
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