Terrible sonnets
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"Terrible sonnets" is the name given to a collection of poetry by Gerard Manley Hopkins, not because of their quality but because according to Hopkins's friend Canon Dixon, they reached the "terrible crystal," meaning that they crystallized the melancholy dejection which plagued the later part of Hopkins' life.
They include I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark, To Seem the Stranger, No Worst, Carrion Comfort, Patience, Hard Thing and My Own Heart.
Background
In 1884 Gerard Manley Hopkins became professor of Greek literature at University College Dublin. His English roots and his disagreement with the Irish politics of the time, as well as his own small stature (5'2"), unprepossessing nature and personal oddities meant that he was not a particularly effective teacher. This as well as his isolation in Ireland deepened his gloom and his poems of the time, such as I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark, reflected this. They came to be known as the "terrible sonnets," not because of their quality but because according to Hopkins's friend Canon Dixon, they reached the "terrible crystal," meaning that they crystallized the melancholy dejection which plagued the later part of Hopkins' life.
