About the poet
A poet and Jesuit priest from England, Gerard Manley Hopkins was renowned for his creative use of form and phrase. His unique style is characterized by “sprung rhythm,” a meter he created that prioritizes stress above syllabic count, and his poetry frequently examines religious topics, the natural world, and the human experience
God’s Grandeur is a sonnet written by English priest and poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. Hopkins didn’t publish this poem himself, as it was published posthumously. The word ‘grandeur’ means grandness or magnificence. In the poem, Hopkins conveys his reverence for the magnificence of God’s nature and his despair about the way humanity has seemed to lose sight of the close connection between God and nature during the Second Industrial Revolution.
line by line analysis
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
The speaker compares God’s presence to electricity flowing through nature, sometimes appearing in flashes of light, like shiny metal foil catching the light. He suggests that world is full of God‘s glory. God’s existence is compared to valuable oil, which is only fully revealed when squeezed to its core. Despite the abundant signs of God’s presence in nature, why do people ignore His divine power? God is present everywhere because it is He who gives power to all other organisms, including humans. However, human beings do not acknowledge the presence of God in today’s world.
Through the line “Why do men then now not reck his rod?” The speaker questions, why men no longer fears ‘his rod’. God’s rod is an instrument used to punish those who go under the wrong part and bring them on the right path. But in today’s world, men commit sins without caring about this authoritative power of God.
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
In this stanza, the speaker responds to his earlier question. He describes how humans have spoiled and polluted the environment through industrial and economic activities. Many generations have passed, repeatedly walking the same path. However, their efforts have left the world damaged by hard labor, with everything becoming worn out and dirty through human activity. The greed for money has left a negative impact on everything in the world. The natural beauty has been damaged by human labor, and selfishness and dirt have spread throughout nature. People are indifferent to this destruction, unable to feel the hardness or softness of the earth beneath their feet. The soil is now bare, and because people wear shoes, they can no longer feel the true nature of the earth beneath their feet.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
In these lines, the speaker’s religious faith rises above his bleak view of human life. He shifts from darkness to light, from night to day, and from winter to spring. Despite everything, nature is never used up or exhausted. Deep within nature, there is a hidden, renewing source of freshness that revives the Earth every time spring arrives. Even as the last light fades from the dark western sky, the morning rises from the east, bringing new life and hope, symbolising the continual renewal of nature. The Holy Ghost (or Spirit) watches over the world, offering protection and care, like a mother bird uses her body to shelter and warm her eggs and hatchlings.