It's important to have a sense of what Gerard Manley Hopkins' life was like in his last years to understand why his poetry changed and became darker. He moved to Dublin to work as a teacher in 1884. He felt overworked, underappreciated, and was chronically physically unwell. His residence was in poor condition, dingy, cramped, and cold. The plumbing leaked, and the water sometimes became fouled—a problem that ultimately led to his death from typhoid in 1889.

"I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark, Not Day" is one of the so-called Terrible Sonnets from this period of his life. This poem rises out of the dark night of the soul. There is no silver lining here. But perhaps there is a paradox to darkness. Sometimes In telling the darkness and leaving it as dark as it feels, the telling itself can be a light. And, like Hopkins, if we tell the darkness, we can sometimes find our way out of it, too.

Music from this episode was from EVOE, Diffie Bosman, Alon Peretz, Kyle Preston, and Jon Gegelman. Sound design and editing is by Nate Sheppard.

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In this season, we’ve talked about the beauty of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ work, but he is also known for poems that plumb the depths of the human experience as well as its heights. Hopkins suffered from several chronic maladies, and there is a darker streak that runs through many of his poems, especially in those written toward the end of his short life when his own suffering and misery had reached a crescendo.

"The Caged Skylark" is one of these darker poems. It is a poem about the cage of the frailties and foibles of the human body and about the resurrection and new creation for which Hopkins longed.

Music from this episode was from EVOE, Beneath The Mountain, Okaya, Yehezkel Raz, Ardie Son, and Christopher Galovan. Sound design and editing is by Nate Sheppard.

For more poetry from the Rabbit Room, subscribe to our newsletter at Rabbitroompoetry.substack.com.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Gerard Manley Hopkins became a Jesuit in 1868, he burned his poetry and swore off making any more. Then followed nearly a decade of poetic silence, in which he wrote little to no poetry. That is, until a ship called the Deutschland ran aground off the coast of England. Hopkins was so affected by the tragedy, especially the death of five Franciscan nuns, that a poem came pouring out of him in 35 eight-line stanzas.

"The Wreck of the Deutschland" is written in two parts. The first part is autobiographical, and the second part focuses on the action and aftermath of the wreck itself. Though almost roundly rejected by everyone who read it during Hopkins life, "The Wreck of the Deutschland" makes innovative use of the English language the likes of which has rarely been seen since, let alone in 1875.

Music from this episode was from EVOE, Julian Cassia, Brianna Tam, Sid Acharya, Aija Alsina, idokay, and Enzo Bellomo.

Sound design and editing is by Nate Sheppard. For more poetry from the Rabbit Room, subscribe to our newsletter at Rabbitroompoetry.substack.com.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.