When looking at the form of Gerard Manley Hopkins ‘No Worst There Is None…’, it is certainly interesting to note that, while the octave aligns with the traditional Petrarchan pattern, the rhyme pattern being ABBA, the sestet deviates from this conventional form, in that the sestet has a rhyme scheme of CDCDCD; this is not typical of either Petrarchan or Shakespearean sonnet forms. One can perceive this as Hopkin’s making clear that this is not a typical sonnet, it’s not a love poem but rather a sombre and conversational consideration of deep and distressing emotion. To further this divergence from the expected, Hopkin’s, employs a plethora of poetic devices to alter the rhythm of the poem; for instance, the surprising use of caesurae, which are scattered across the sonnet, interrupt the typically continuous train of iambic pentameter. This, along with an abundance of punctuation, creates an almost staggered effect when reading the poem, as though the reader is traversing over uneven rocks, conveying the difficulty found in the poems subject matter. ‘Surprised by Joy’, though similar in its departure from conventional sonnet form, trains a more fluent rhythm. Wordsworth writes in an Italian-Miltonic form, making frequent uses of couplet endings; yet he never crosses over into Shakespearean or Spenserian practice. Unlike Hopkin’s piece, ‘Surprised’ is an elegiac sonnet, and the form seems to mirror the emotional complexities of losing a loved one. The second half is rhymed ACCA, keeping the rhyme moving forward, as if offering hope, to then be dashed in the sestet by the introduction of the new DEDEDE rhyme. Muck like Hopkin’s piece, the poem immediately focuses on emotion rather than subject, the beginning two adjectival clauses, separated by a dash, or perhaps a gasp, instantly focus attention on the sensations rather than the subject of ‘I’. However, the use of eye-rhyme and half-rhyme create a sense of informality not found in ‘No Worst’ as, to the ear, these rhymes lack precision and appear almost like a train of thought.
Similar to ‘Surprised by Joy’, Keats’s ‘When I Have Fears…’ strict metrical pattern has the effect of sounding like idiomatic English, Keats’s carefully constructed language also sounds like a spontaneous train of thought. For example, the words ‘gleaned’, ‘garners’, and ‘grain’ found in the first quatrain all feature hard ‘g’s’, tying the speaker’s metaphor together with one sound; both Hopkin’s and Keats employ an abundance of alliteration within their poems, yet they produce entirely different effects. ‘No Worst’ is more haunting and melancholic, whereas Keats’s sonnet has a rather conversational tone. Although the former poem may sound more jovial and ‘sing-songy’ in its rhyme, Hopkin’s use of internal rhyme in ‘steep’, ‘deep’ and ‘creep’ reminds the reader that, though it may be a solemn and nihilistic one, ‘No Worst’ is a song nonetheless.
At first glance, it seems that ‘Surprised by Joy’, is rather top-heavy compared to the other two poems. Although the turn occurs roughly in the middle of the first line of the sestet, Wordsworth abandons the typical conflict-to-resolution form of argument for one which begins with the desired end-result and progresses towards the heart of the problem. This certainly embodies the sentiments posed by Sidney in his essay ‘The Defense of Poesy’, in that the poet ‘presents virtues and vices in a livelier and more affecting way than nature does’ , Wordsworth picks up the reader in a flurry of emotion and verse, conveying the complexities of grief through the medium of poetry. The first few lines are concerned with being swept up in the excitement of happiness: ‘surprised’, ‘wind,’ ‘transport’, they serve to whisk the reader towards an expected crescendo of ‘joy’. But yet, the poem then calms into a more subdued manner, with the early exclamations and questions giving way to a more measured and restrained explanation of the speaker’s state of mind. ‘Oh! With whom’, pushes onward to its apostrophe, deferred until the last moment ‘With whom/ but thee…’, the line rises and peaks at ‘thee’, addressing the beloved no longer there. While the first quatrain is self-contained in a finished shape of rise and fall, the second is welded to the sestet, ‘blind/ To my most grievous loss?’, still giving the reader a sense of the informality of speech flowing against the sonnet’s grid. While Wordsworth places his Volta at the beginning of the sestet, Keats’s emotional reversal comes rather late in his sonnet. ‘Fears’ spends the first 11 ½ lines exploring the combinations of the speakers desire and his certainty that death will cut those desires short, the last two lines reject all of the speaker’s desires as futile. It’s a poetic choice shrouded in ambiguity, either the speaker is hesitant to accept his ‘solution’, leaving it to the last moment, or he is rushing towards the turn. I. Keats’s ending is similar to Hopkin’s in this respect, a rather dismal ending centred around death. However, Keats’s ending, typical of a sonnet, offers a resolution to ideas presented in the lines prior, certainly an unconventional solution of sorts, but Hopkin’s differs here as ‘No Worst’ offers no resolution. ‘O the mind…’ marks a shift in the subject, considering the cause of pain and life as a whole. Here the speaker attributes the pain to the mind, and the only solace the speaker can find is in death. The thematic structure of the poem itself mirror the speaker’s descent in that, although the falling into despair seems wretched enough, by the end of the poem we see what is perhaps most disturbing about grief is not simply its intensity but its marked transience. The abundance of spondees and internal rhyme in the last line underlines its finality and marks it as vastly nihilistic compared to the other two sonnets, and here once again Sidney’s essay proves its wisdom, as though Hopkin’s piece is decidedly pessimistic, it still serves to move the reader through the ‘honest’ use of metaphor.
Concerning the poetic voice, one must note the abundance of voices within ‘No Worst’. The personification of ‘Fury’, and the language of torment indicates a cacophony of ghostly voices. The speakers cry of pain ‘heave’, as if they rise up like waves, and they do so ‘herds-long’, that is, like a multitude of cries that stretch out far in time, as though the cries were in ‘herds’ like countless cattle but are unified by one major sorrow. ‘The Comforter’ – referring to the Holy Spirit, contributes to the sense of nihilism as the poet chooses to use the verb ‘comforting’ rather than a synonym, this repetition underscores the speaker’s disappointment and the repetition of ‘where’ makes the speaker seem particularly emphatic and impromptu, resulting in a passionate tone. Wordsworth’s poem also creates the effect of moans, the voice becomes increasingly subdued as the poem declines; the long ‘oor’ sounds of the sestet’s rhyme-words are like moans. The diction itself becomes rather platitudinous; it is telling us what the first quatrain so expressively showed. Thought is the component of our internal environment that we can directly control, and with it we can actualize or suffocate emotions. The narrator uses his thoughts to reject joy and accept sorrow. In this way, he perpetuates his grieving in the face of impending happiness.
These poems all share a speaker located within their own mind, essentially; in Keats’s poem, nature doesn’t appear in descriptive terms, rather, items from nature are used as vehicles in metaphors about the speaker’s own emotional state.
Although all these poems are centred around the theme of death, they explore more the more complex avenue of emotions. Returning to Sidney’s essay, he states that ‘art can give the accessible moral guidance that perhaps the church couldn’t give’, and though Hopkin’s poem is not providing guidance, its apostrophising of the Virgin Mary and the Holy Spirit certainly conveys the sense of an absent divine presence. It is certainly possible that a reader could relate to this feeling of isolation, though they may not voice it themselves, further showing how the art of poetry is invaluable as, even the most dismal of poems, provide comfort and relation to readers. Keats’s poem also valorises the importance of poetic thought and writing as, though glory, romance and the sensations of life are desirable, they are secondary; the speaker realizes that the process of his thought is enough in itself, and a writer can fulfil his earthly purpose through thought alone. The overarching link between these poems is their exploration of the complexities of emotion. ‘Surprised’, is a highly dramatic and emotional sonnet, however it is both about death and remembering that death, the impact of this poem comes from its vivid remembering of a moment of joy, followed by the realization the loved one with whom the poet wishes to share this emotion is not present, most readers will remember a moment such as this and thus shows the everlasting importance of poetry as a form, so eloquently articulated in Sidney’s essay.