I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day (Leaving Cert English): Revision Notes

I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day

Overview and context

"I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day" represents one of Hopkins' most profound explorations of spiritual anguish and religious doubt. The poem captures a speaker's intense internal struggle as they grapple with feelings of divine abandonment and seek to understand God's role in their prolonged suffering. Unlike Hopkins' more celebratory nature poems, this sonnet delves into the darkest corners of faith, presenting a soul trapped in spiritual exile yet clinging to belief.

The poem opens with the speaker experiencing a sleepless night, but quickly reveals this darkness extends far beyond a single evening. What begins as physical restlessness transforms into a meditation on years of spiritual separation from God, culminating in a stark recognition of the speaker's trapped condition within their own tormented existence.

Structure and form

Petrarchan sonnet framework

Hopkins employs the Italian sonnet structure, which perfectly mirrors the poem's emotional journey. The octave (first eight lines) establishes the problem - the speaker's endless night of spiritual darkness and futile attempts to reach God. The sestet (final six lines) provides not resolution, but a deepening of the crisis as the speaker recognises their inescapable situation.

This structural division creates a powerful turn in thought, moving from describing the speaker's restless night to examining their broader spiritual condition. The formal precision of the sonnet contrasts dramatically with the emotional chaos expressed within, highlighting the speaker's desperate attempt to find order amid inner turmoil.

Innovative rhyme scheme

While maintaining the traditional octave pattern (ABBAABBA), Hopkins innovates significantly in the sestet with CCDCCD instead of the conventional CDECDE or CDCDCD. This modification creates an intense echoing effect through the repeated C rhymes, which reinforces the poem's themes of recurring spiritual anguish and cyclical suffering. The D rhymes (curse/worse) provide harsh, bitter endings that emphasise the speaker's despair.

Sprung rhythm technique

The poem demonstrates Hopkins' signature sprung rhythm, built upon iambic pentameter but featuring frequent stressed syllables in succession with varying numbers of unstressed syllables between stresses. This creates a jarring, emotionally charged effect that mirrors the speaker's psychological distress. The irregular rhythm makes readers feel the same unsettling experience the speaker endures, breaking the expected flow just as spiritual anguish disrupts the soul's peace.

Detailed stanza analysis

Opening quatrain (Lines 1-4)

The poem begins with the devastating line "I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day," immediately establishing the central metaphor that darkness has become the speaker's reality instead of light. The word "fell" suggests both the sensation of darkness like animal skin and the deadly, terrible nature of this spiritual condition.

The speaker addresses his own heart directly, asking "What hours, O what black hours we have spent / This night! what sights you, heart, saw; ways you went!" This internal dialogue reveals the speaker's fragmented psychological state, treating his heart as a separate entity that has witnessed and experienced trauma. The "black hours" extend beyond mere time into a realm of spiritual desolation.

The final line of this section, "And more must, in yet longer light's delay," establishes that this suffering will continue indefinitely. The speaker recognises that dawn - both literal and metaphorical divine illumination - remains frustratingly distant.

Second quatrain (Lines 5-8)

Hopkins intensifies the temporal scope, revealing that the speaker's reference to "hours" actually means "years, mean life". This expansion transforms what initially appeared to be one difficult night into a lifetime of spiritual darkness. The speaker's "lament" has become perpetual, crying out to God without receiving response.

The metaphor of "dead letters sent / To dearest him that lives alas! away" powerfully captures the speaker's sense of divine abandonment. His prayers are like undelivered mail to someone who cannot or will not respond. This image particularly stings when we consider Hopkins' own dedication as a Jesuit priest - even complete religious devotion fails to guarantee spiritual consolation.

The volta and sestet (Lines 9-14)

The poem's turn occurs dramatically as the speaker declares "I am gall, I am heartburn. God's most deep decree." Here, the speaker recognises himself as embodying bitterness and pain, suggesting this condition represents divine will rather than random suffering. The physical imagery of "gall" (bile) and "heartburn" makes the spiritual anguish viscerally tangible.

"Bitter would have me taste: my taste was me" creates a horrifying cycle where the speaker can taste nothing but his own bitter essence. The line "Bones built in me, flesh filled, blood brimmed the curse" suggests that suffering is literally built into his physical existence - he cannot escape his own body that houses this torment.

The final comparison offers a surprising perspective: "The lost are like this, and their scourge to be / As I am mine, their sweating selves; but worse." The speaker finds a grim comfort in recognising that while his suffering is intense, those without faith face even bleaker circumstances. This acknowledgement provides the poem's only moment of relative consolation.

Major themes and imagery

Spiritual darkness as lived reality

The central image of darkness pervades the entire poem, but Hopkins transforms it from simple absence of light into a living, felt presence. The "fell of dark" suggests darkness as something that can be touched and experienced physically, creating a sense of being trapped within spiritual desolation. This darkness becomes the speaker's environment rather than simply the absence of divine presence.

The imagery evolves throughout the poem, beginning with the basic contrast between dark and day, then expanding into "black hours" that stretch across years of spiritual obscurity. This progression shows how temporary spiritual dryness can become a seemingly permanent condition that defines one's entire existence.

The endless night of faith

Hopkins presents spiritual suffering as cyclical and potentially eternal. The speaker's life unfolds as one prolonged night of divine separation, marked by prayers that go unanswered like "dead letters dispatched into the void". This metaphor emphasises the speaker's sense that his attempts at divine communication fall into emptiness, creating profound spiritual isolation.

Body and spirit in conflict

The poem explores the complex relationship between physical and spiritual existence, presenting the body not simply as evil but as the prison that contains and perpetuates spiritual suffering. Hopkins uses visceral imagery like "gall," "heartburn," and "bones built in me" to show how spiritual anguish manifests physically.

The line "Selfyeast of spirit a dull dough sours" creates a particularly striking metaphor where the spirit, which should elevate and refine the physical being, instead becomes corrupted through isolation. The spirit becomes like yeast that sours dough rather than helping it rise, suggesting that without divine connection, even spiritual faculties become corrupted.

Divine purpose in exile

The sestet reveals that the speaker views his suffering as part of "God's most deep decree", suggesting divine intentionality behind spiritual exile. Rather than seeing his condition as abandonment, the speaker recognises it as somehow orchestrated by God for purposes beyond his understanding.

The absence of consolation

Unlike many religious poems that conclude with hope or divine comfort, Hopkins' sonnet ends in continued darkness. The speaker's only consolation comes from recognising that non-believers face even worse spiritual desolation. This stark ending reflects the poem's unflinching examination of spiritual dryness without offering false comfort.

The comparison to "the lost" provides perspective but not relief, suggesting that faith itself, even when accompanied by suffering, remains valuable. The poem captures the essence of enduring faith without emotional satisfaction, presenting a mature understanding of religious commitment that persists despite the absence of consoling feelings.

Hopkins' innovative poetic techniques

Hopkins demonstrates his mastery of sound and rhythm to reinforce the poem's themes. The repeated consonants in "gall" and "heartburn" create harsh, guttural sounds that embody the speaker's emotional pain. The modified rhyme scheme intensifies the echo effect, making certain sounds return obsessively like the speaker's recurring thoughts.

The sprung rhythm creates a sense of emotional instability, breaking expected patterns just as spiritual anguish disrupts the soul's equilibrium. This technical innovation makes readers experience something analogous to the speaker's psychological state, demonstrating Hopkins' ability to use poetic form as meaning rather than mere decoration.

Remember!