By Gerard Manly Hopkins
Summary.
G.M. Hopkins, the religious poet describes magnificent status and majestic deeds of God in the
poem titled God’s grandeur. It is true that God is the only source of life and pleasures on this
earth and he is therefore, omnipresent (present everywhere) and omnipotent (the most poweful).
The good deeds on earth are also the result of God’s blessings. God is such a power that though
human beings continuously destroy nature, it is never spent.
The world is full of the greatness due to God. Due to His greatness, the world shines like ‘a
shook foil’. It gathers to greatness, as it is full of resources and becomes ever more and wide
spreading. Despite this fact, human beings act oppositely. They don’t follow the commands
of God; they don’t try to look for his splendor and status, rather, they function to demolish the
world.
All generations have destroyed the earth and so is the case with the present generation too .
They act as if they are not rational creatures. As a result of their deeds, the earth has become
dry; it has the smell of human beings instead of its natural smell. Indeed the earth has reached
to the verge of destruction due to human beings irrational actions and destructive contributions,
nevertheless, the world is never completely destroyed because of the freshness that is inside
things granted by God. Nature keeps on regenerating. The sun sets in the evening only to
reappear in the morning. These all happenings are the results of the god’s protection. He protects
the earth just like a bird broods over the eggs.
The poet is of the opinion that human beings acts are always directed towards destruction:
knowingly or unknowingly but since God is omnipresent and omnipotent, nature is ever
refreshed for human beings to live and be blessed.
Interpretation and appreciation of the text
The text God’s grandeur is a work of sonnet devoted to God and it is merely concerned with
exemplifying the God’s greatness or vigor and his magnificence over all the things and existence
of all on this earth. The poem in a way celebrates the glory of God.
The poet accepts the existence of God in the world. He says that God is everywhere. The glory
and greatness or magnificence of the god is manifested in everything and everywhere. The poet
says that the world is charged that means it gets energy to function and awaken itself with the
grandeur which stands for blessing and mercy of God. It flames out like shining from gold tinsel
(shook foil) and oozes like oil from the crushed seeds. God is thus, omnipresent and yet, human
beings ignore and deny the presence of god’s greatness. Many generations have passed through
this world. Hopkins says, “Generations have trod, have trod, have trod…” and this is a repetition
of the same statement and means emphatically that all have come and gone in course of time.
The poet presents that man has contributed miserably for the nature to suffer destructions. In
the race of making money, man toils and suffers miseries and unhappiness.That all is the result
of artificial life and their unlimited desires which are leading them towards endless destination.
Instead of searching for the values decorated by God, man tries to find values in the material
prosperity and physical beauty and so, he is sad all the times. He tries to find peace in the
material progress and so is ever unhappy. But the fact is that real peace is in God’s plan and
possession .Being blind with artificial living, they cannot understand the greatness of God and
they do not pay attention to the command of God. Everything is affected by human activities and
so is nature too.
Still nature is never spent for what man tries to spend nature. The God blesses everybody with
generous nature and his greatness, which is evident from enumerable gifts of God. Though
humans are destroying nature, it is never spent. The dearest freshness lies in the deep down of
Nature.
In this way, the poet is aesthetically inspired by the grandeur of nature in which he finds
reflection of God. Nature is always fresh and new in the depth only . For sometimes, the nature
may be bare, but that bareness is soon recovered with the greatness of God. The darkness
prevails but the next morning a new brightness arises from the east. Irrespective of men’s
behaviors, the God blesses man with life enhancing gifts of the dawn and dusk, the sun, the
moon, the fertile land and bountiful nature. God blesses us with warmth and love of his breast
and wings. The God is always kind for the world and all the creatures. Hence, God is great and
he has charged the world with his grandeur.
In short, the poem is entirely devoted to appreciation of God and it saliently offers the same taste
through this poem.
conclusion
The poem is too valuable for every generation in a sense as it successfully presents a vision and
insight about the reality of this world and leads to spiritual understanding over the materialistic
understanding of today’s humans who are blindly after the attainment of material values for
nothing. The message in short is that God is spiritual power and so it is different and unique from
all powers in the world which can’t match with the greatness and magnificence of God as they
are his products only.
