Language and tone in Carrion Comfort

Hopkins the victim

Hopkins mentions to Bridges that one of his sonnets about this time ‘was written in blood'. It is assumed he meant this one - the tone is so desperate, it goes well beyond the soul-searching of the confession:

Particularly agonising are such phrases as

‘me heaped there; me frantic to avoid thee and flee?'

The repetition of ‘me' is echoed in the sestet with the equally harrowing ‘me's of the questions
Hopkins creates a complicated adjectival phrase: ‘the hero whose heaven-handling flung me, foot trod Me?' To paraphrase: ‘Is this consolation meant to cheer me, who have experienced my hero flinging me about as part of his divine purposes (‘heaven-handling') and also his foot treading on me?'

That is one ‘me'. (For a biblical echo, read Lamentations 3:1-32)

Hopkins the combatant

The other ‘me' is the one ‘that fought him' (as Jacob did Genesis 32:24-30). The two ‘me's of the divided personality echo New Testament writer Paul, when he says in a chapter that deals entirely with the divided personality:

‘O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?' (Romans 7:24 TNIV)

Compounds and alliteration

Lastly, we must note Hopkins' compounds: ‘lionlimb'; ‘wring-world', ‘heaven-handling'.
The alliterative patterns are much less obvious here than elsewhere, but still draw attention to themselves: ‘right foot rock'; ‘darksome devouring'.
Internal rhymes similarly occur briefly but effectively: ‘sheer and clear'; ‘toil, that coil'.
‘rude' means ‘roughly, uncouthly'

Investigating Carrion Comfort

Look at the number of monosyllables.
- What effect does such a large proportion have on the reading of the sonnet?
What other devices indicate the passion or torment in which Hopkins is writing?

English Standard Version
King James Version

¹I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath; ²he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light; ³surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long. ⁴He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones; ⁵he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation; ⁶he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago. ⁷He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy; ⁸though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer; ⁹he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones; he has made my paths crooked. ¹⁰He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding; ¹¹he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate; ¹²he bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow. ¹³He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver; ¹⁴I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts all day long. ¹⁵He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood. ¹⁶He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; ¹⁷my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; ¹⁸so I say, My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the Lord. ¹⁹Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! ²⁰My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. ²¹But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: ²²The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; ²³they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ²⁴The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I will hope in him. ²⁵The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. ²⁶It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. ²⁷It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. ²⁸Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him; ²⁹let him put his mouth in the dust - there may yet be hope; ³⁰let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults. ³¹For the Lord will not cast off forever, ³²but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; ³³for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men. ³⁴To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth, ³⁵to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High, ³⁶to subvert a man in his lawsuit, the Lord does not approve. ³⁷Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? ³⁸Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come? ³⁹Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins? ⁴⁰Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord! ⁴¹Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven: ⁴²We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven. ⁴³You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us, killing without pity; ⁴⁴you have wrapped yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through. ⁴⁵You have made us scum and garbage among the peoples. ⁴⁶All our enemies open their mouths against us; ⁴⁷panic and pitfall have come upon us, devastation and destruction; ⁴⁸my eyes flow with rivers of tears because of the destruction of the daughter of my people. ⁴⁹My eyes will flow without ceasing, without respite, ⁵⁰until the Lord from heaven looks down and sees; ⁵¹my eyes cause me grief at the fate of all the daughters of my city. ⁵²I have been hunted like a bird by those who were my enemies without cause; ⁵³they flung me alive into the pit and cast stones on me; ⁵⁴water closed over my head; I said, I am lost. ⁵⁵I called on your name, O Lord, from the depths of the pit; ⁵⁶you heard my plea, Do not close your ear to my cry for help! ⁵⁷You came near when I called on you; you said, Do not fear! ⁵⁸You have taken up my cause, O Lord; you have redeemed my life. ⁵⁹You have seen the wrong done to me, O Lord; judge my cause. ⁶⁰You have seen all their vengeance, all their plots against me. ⁶¹You have heard their taunts, O Lord, all their plots against me. ⁶²The lips and thoughts of my assailants are against me all the day long. ⁶³Behold their sitting and their rising; I am the object of their taunts. ⁶⁴You will repay them, O Lord, according to the work of their hands. ⁶⁵You will give them dullness of heart; your curse will be on them. ⁶⁶You will pursue them in anger and destroy them from under your heavens, O Lord.

¹I AM the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. ²He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light. ³Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day. ⁴My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones. ⁵He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail. ⁶He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old. ⁷He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy. ⁸Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer. ⁹He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked. ¹⁰He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places. ¹¹He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate. ¹²He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow. ¹³He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins. ¹⁴I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day. ¹⁵He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood. ¹⁶He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes. ¹⁷And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity. ¹⁸And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD: ¹⁹Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. ²⁰My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. ²¹This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. ²²It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. ²³They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. ²⁴The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. ²⁵The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. ²⁶It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD. ²⁷It is good for a man that he bear the yoke of his youth. ²⁸He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. ²⁹He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope. ³⁰He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach. ³¹For the LORD will not cast off for ever: ³²But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. ³³For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. ³⁴To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth. ³⁵To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High, ³⁶To subvert a man in his cause, the LORD approveth not. ³⁷Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? ³⁸Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good? ³⁹Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? ⁴⁰Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD. ⁴¹Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. ⁴²We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned. ⁴³Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied. ⁴⁴Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through. ⁴⁵Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people. ⁴⁶All our enemies have opened their mouths against us. ⁴⁷Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction. ⁴⁸Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people. ⁴⁹Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission. ⁵⁰Till the LORD look down, and behold from heaven. ⁵¹Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city. ⁵²Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause. ⁵³They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me. ⁵⁴Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off. ⁵⁵I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon. ⁵⁶Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry. ⁵⁷Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not. ⁵⁸O LORD, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life. ⁵⁹O LORD, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause. ⁶⁰Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me. ⁶¹Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations against me; ⁶²The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day. ⁶³Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their musick. ⁶⁴Render unto them a recompence, O LORD, according to the work of their hands. ⁶⁵Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them. ⁶⁶Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD.

English Standard Version
King James Version

¹Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. ²And when Jacob saw them he said, This is God's camp! So he called the name of that place Mahanaim. ³And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Seir, the country of Edom, ⁴instructing them, Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now. ⁵I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent to tell my lord, in order that I may find favor in your sight. ⁶And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred men with him. ⁷Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps, ⁸thinking, If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape. ⁹And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good, ¹⁰I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. ¹¹Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. ¹²But you said, I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. ¹³So he stayed there that night, and from what he had with him he took a present for his brother Esau, ¹⁴two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, ¹⁵thirty milking camels and their calves, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. ¹⁶These he handed over to his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, Pass on ahead of me and put a space between drove and drove. ¹⁷He instructed the first, When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these ahead of you? ¹⁸then you shall say, They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a present sent to my lord Esau. And moreover, he is behind us. ¹⁹He likewise instructed the second and the third and all who followed the droves, You shall say the same thing to Esau when you find him, ²⁰and you shall say, Moreover, your servant Jacob is behind us. For he thought, I may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me, and afterward I shall see his face. Perhaps he will accept me. ²¹So the present passed on ahead of him, and he himself stayed that night in the camp. ²²The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. ²³He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. ²⁴And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. ²⁵When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. ²⁶Then he said, Let me go, for the day has broken. But Jacob said, I will not let you go unless you bless me. ²⁷And he said to him, What is your name? And he said, Jacob. ²⁸Then he said, Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed. ²⁹Then Jacob asked him, Please tell me your name. But he said, Why is it that you ask my name? And there he blessed him. ³⁰So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered. ³¹The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. ³²Therefore to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip on the sinew of the thigh.

¹And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. ²And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God's host: and he called the name of that place Mahanaim. ³And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother unto the land of Seir, the country of Edom. ⁴And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall ye speak unto my lord Esau; Thy servant Jacob saith thus, I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed there until now: ⁵And I have oxen, and asses, flocks, and menservants, and womenservants: and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find grace in thy sight. ⁶And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and also he cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with him. ⁷Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed: and he divided the people that was with him, and the flocks, and herds, and the camels, into two bands; ⁸And said, If Esau come to the one company, and smite it, then the other company which is left shall escape. ⁹And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the LORD which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee: ¹⁰I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast showed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands. ¹¹Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children. ¹²And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. ¹³And he lodged there that same night; and took of that which came to his hand a present for Esau his brother; ¹⁴Two hundred she goats, and twenty he goats, two hundred ewes, and twenty rams, ¹⁵Thirty milch camels with their colts, forty kine, and ten bulls, twenty she asses, and ten foals. ¹⁶And he delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by themselves; and said unto his servants, Pass over before me, and put a space betwixt drove and drove. ¹⁷And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau my brother meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying, Whose art thou? and whither goest thou? and whose are these before thee? ¹⁸Then thou shalt say, They be thy servant Jacob's; it is a present sent unto my lord Esau: and, behold, also he is behind us. ¹⁹And so commanded he the second, and the third, and all that followed the droves, saying, On this manner shall ye speak unto Esau, when ye find him. ²⁰And say ye moreover, Behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face; peradventure he will accept of me. ²¹So went the present over before him: and himself lodged that night in the company. ²²And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two womenservants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford Jabbok. ²³And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had. ²⁴And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. ²⁵And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. ²⁶And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. ²⁷And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. ²⁸And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. ²⁹And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. ³⁰And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. ³¹And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh. ³²Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day: because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew that shrank.

English Standard Version
King James Version

¹Or do you not know, brothers - for I am speaking to those who know the law - that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? ²For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. ³Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. ⁴Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. ⁵For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. ⁶But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. ⁷What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, You shall not covet. ⁸But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. ⁹I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. ¹⁰The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. ¹¹For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. ¹²So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. ¹³Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. ¹⁴For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. ¹⁵For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. ¹⁶Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. ¹⁷So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. ¹⁸For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. ¹⁹For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. ²⁰Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. ²¹So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. ²²For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, ²³but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. ²⁴Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? ²⁵Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

¹Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? ²For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. ³So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. ⁴Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. ⁵For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. ⁶But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. ⁷What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. ⁸But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. ⁹For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. ¹⁰And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. ¹¹For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. ¹²Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. ¹³Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. ¹⁴For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. ¹⁵For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. ¹⁶If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. ¹⁷Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. ¹⁸For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. ¹⁹For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. ²⁰Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. ²¹I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. ²²For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: ²³But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. ²⁴O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? ²⁵I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

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Gerard Manley Hopkins, selected poems Contents