No worst, there is none

Sir David Young Cameron 1865 - 1945

The Hill of the Winds

about 1913

Oil on canvas

116.80 x 132.70 cm

The National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh

Sir David Young Cameron 1865 - 1945

Ben Ledi

1911

Etching and drypoint on paper

37.70 x 30.20 cm

The National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh

James Craig Annan (1864 - 1946)

The Dark Mountains

1890

Photogravure on paper

15.00 x 21.00 cm

The National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh

Ian Cheyne (1895 - 1955)

Hell's Glen

1928

Colour woodcut on paper (16/20)

25.20 x 29.80 cm (paper 28.00 x 32.10 cm)

The National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh

`No worst, there is none. Pitched past pitch of grief’


NO worst, there is none. Pitched past pitch of grief,
More pangs will, schooled at forepangs, wilder wring.
Comforter, where, where is your comforting?
Mary, mother of us, where is your relief?
My cries heave, herds-long; huddle in a main, a chief
Woe, world-sorrow; on an age-old anvil wince and sing—
Then lull, then leave off. Fury had shrieked ‘No ling-
ering! Let me be fell: force I must be brief’.

O the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall
Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed. Hold them cheap
May who ne’er hung there. Nor does long our small
Durance deal with that steep or deep. Here! creep,
Wretch, under a comfort serves in a whirlwind: all
Life death does end and each day dies with sleep.

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89).