God's Grandeur

Gerard Manley Hopkins

(1844-1889)

Hopkins is an acquired taste. But, once acquired, there are few poets who offer such a unique blend of form and content. God’s Grandeur was the first of four poems by Hopkins I took up. At first, I did not know whether I could hold it in memory. There are words and phrases which did not make immediate sense to me. Surprisingly, it came rather easily. If it had not, I doubt I would have pursued the others. I think it was the poem’s fluidity and its rich, sophisticated alliteration that made it easy to memorize. The alliteration starts in the title and carries through the entire work, yet never seems forced.

Hopkins’ poetry is dense, and its vocabulary is from another time and place, so it can seem foreign at first. It helps to know a little about the poet and his view of the world. Thanks to the Internet some basic information is just a click away. Also, Richard Austin is a performer of Hopkins’ poetry and his web site offers helpful information, including a sample of his performance.

Suffice it to say, Hopkins was a rare bird and life was not easy for him, but he had a great gift. One interesting fact is that few of his poems were published in his lifetime. Had it not been for the interest and friendship of Robert Bridges, a UK poet laureate, most of his writing would have been lost.

The reward in memorizing Hopkins is in the pleasure of the sound his poetry makes and the places his imagery can take you. First, just the sound of certain lines has held a fascination for me. The final line of the first stanza, for example, has a subtle alliteration in the middle of the line. Recite it out loud and you’ll feel the “n” pull you forward to the finishing “r.”

Why do men then now not wreck his rod?”

I should point out that “wreck his rod” does not mean destroy his rod. This is one of those instances where Hopkins’ Victorian English can cause a stumble. Think of “wreck” as recognize and “rod” as a symbol of authority. So, that line asks, why do men fail to recognize (and obey) God’s authority when it is clearly manifest in the world?

Another example of subtle alliteration occurs at the end of the poem. Look at the alternating “b” and “w” sounds.

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent

World broods with warm breast and Ah! Bright wings.

There is one other line that does not require much in the way of translation which I have always loved. Actually, it’s two lines.

And, for all this, nature is never spent;

There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;

This poem reflects the impact of industrialization on nature – God’s Grandeur. Hopkins saw this not only as bad for the environment but as a betrayal of nature which for him was an expression of God’s love for humanity.

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.

Then he reassures us that if we look carefully, we can access “the dearest freshness deep down things.” Each of us decides what those things may be in our own lives.

God’s Grandeur

The world is charged with the grandeur of God

It will flame out like shining from shook foil.

It gathers into greatness like the ooze of oil

Crushed. Why do men then now not wreck his rod?

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.

And, for all this, nature is never spent;

There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;

And though the last light off the black West went

Ah morning! At the brown brink eastward springs –

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent

World broods with warm breast and Ah! Bright wings.

God’s Grandeur is a sonnet. Though written by an English poet it is Italian or Petrarchan in structure – eight lines to pose the dilemma and six lines to form a response.