Carrion Comfort by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Carrion Comfort

by Gerard Manley Hopkins

read by Charles Bryant




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.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• carrion
• comfort
• gerard
• manley
• hopkins
• english
• poetry
• sprung
• rhythm
• charles
• bryant
• spoken
• word
• performing
• arts

[checotahkid]

GREAT ORATOR. Thank-you for sharing this with me.

[brychar66]

my pleasure :)

[written12]

Beyond his derangements of syntax, Hopkins is such a direct, sincere, and moving poet. And his unusual phrasing is not for shock or novelty's sake- it conveys his anguish, his confusion. Also, Hopkins will use a word not as its usual part of speech, among a host of devices. Tbanks for your careful rendition.

[brychar66]

Wise words Stuart. Not the least interesting thing about this poem is that it can also be read as describing an act of love, slightly masochistic perhaps. But then God IS love and will perhaps force himself upon us should we prove reluctant. 'Batter my heart three-personed God' as Donne wrote. Chas

[sfkcbf]

A stream of consciousness and emotion with which I can identify. And how many others throughout the ages, also, have struggled with such thoughts?

[brychar66]

All thinking & feeling people I guess Stephen.

[newsense87]

Quite stunning, beautifully read.

[planetearth42]

i am currently revising carrion comfort for my english a-level. excellent reading - charles is a great orator that (for once!) appeciates and conveys hopkins' use of sprung rhythm.

at this very moment i am remixing a drum and bass version of this poem.

[superdooperstupor]

Dear Charles,

You know the reasons why this poem and your reading of it resonate so profoundly for me.

Thank you. I hope that daylight will re-enter my life someday.

[1zangelique]

BRAVO! And thank you....

[MarasVeil]

Just as I feel at the moment... I will reserve any literary thoughts until I feel otherwise. Love to you Charles. Cathartic.

[written12]

Kory, don't despair- and don't be hard on yourself. Manley Hopkins wrote in a syntactally twisted, pretzel-like way. It does make sense, but you're not getting subjects and their matching verbs coming at you in even a semblance of the usual way. What helped me was something I read- I'll have to track it down for you- that examined the different ways he arranged his sentences. Once you can figure out what's he saying, his figures of speech and the emotion of the poems is very rich.