God's Grandeur
THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God. (1)
It (2) will flame out, like shining from shook foil; (3)
It (4) gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. (5) Why do men then now not reck his rod? (6)
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all (7) is seared (8) with trade; bleared, (9) smeared (10) with toil; (11)
And wears (12) man's smudge (13) and shares man's smell: (14) the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod. (15)
And for all this (16), nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things; (17)
And though the last lights off the black West (18) 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. (19)
(1) A direct statement positioning God and his power as absolute and expressing the fact that the world is filled with God's power. The word "charged" equates the divine with an electric current, flowing as an invisible force throughout the world.
(2) "It" refers to the grandeur of God.
(3) God's power is compared with the bright flashes of light reflected by gold foil as it reacts to sunlight.
(4) "It" refers to the grandeur of God.
(5) In line three, the poet could be suggesting another way of perceiving God's presence in the world: God's existence and greatness are similar to rich oil and a slow accumulation of consciousness like the collection of drops of oil as they are pressed from olives or seeds, and this leads to perception of this "greatness".
(6) Despite of these strong evidences for God's existence, the poet wonders how it is possible that humans are negligent and fail to recognize, "reck", God's divine authority, "his rod".
(7) "all" refers back to generations.
(8) Sear: To cause to dry up and lose freshness.
(9) Blear: To blur.
(10) Smear: To stain by dirty substance.
(11) Lines five and six describe the state of contemporary human life, the blind repetitiveness and continuity of human labor in succeeding generations, and the sordidness of hard work, "toil", and "trade".
(12) The subject of the verb is nature.
(13) Smudge: A mark made by smearing.
(14) This line represents the general corruption of civilization and violation of the natural world by destructive condition of mankind. The world in its natural state reflects God as its creator; but the importance of industry and the priority of economy over the divinity and spirituality have transformed the nature.
(15) The shoes people wear serve the physical connection between their feet and the earth they walk on, implying man's detachment from nature. In other words, clothing becomes a symbol of spiritual distancing from God.
(16) "all this" refers back to the aforementioned corruption and destruction in lines five through eight.
(17) Even though the actions of human appear to be deleterious, nature is never destroyed entirely and the source of this regeneration is the presence of "the dearest freshness deep down things", namely God.
(18) Being the direction of the setting sun and dusk, west is the symbol of death and ending. In addition, one can infer from the poem that the word "West" refers to the western part of the earth, specifically Europe and the United States. It calls readers back to industrialization which results in a shift from home-based hand manufacturing to large-scale factory production and distances human from nature.
(19) Lines eleven through fourteen suggest that the sun rises after it sets, implying movement from darkness of industry to a new dawn which can be attributed to renewal in nature. The basis of this whole regenerative process is God, "Holy Ghost", who sits dove-like over the natural world to restore and also protect it from destruction.
Analysis
"God's Grandeur" by Gerard Manley Hopkins is a petrarchan sonnet in sprung rhythm with a rhyme scheme of abbaabba/cdcdcd and most definitely it is representative of the importance of humanity in relation with God. Being firm in the position that God's power is available to all in the shape of living beings, Hopkins expresses pity and grief for the ignorance of mankind to this vital force which renders it to be a source of harm for natural world.
The first three lines of the octave represent the poet's excitement in considering the world is filled with God's power. The word "charged" brings up a spark or light and consequently creation which began with an extraterrestrial spark of light (1), implies that the God's power bears a resemblance to some lightening through which the world is charged or in other words, "The spirit of the Lord fills the world" (2). It shows that the intensity and brilliance of God's power is thus only explainable in terms of simile pertaining to fire and light. As the poet suggests, similar to a foil, God is capable of emitting the most powerful or, in some cases, even destructive light. As one goes on, in the third line another descriptive image calls attention to itself depicting the accumulation of drops of oil which conceptually supports the previous image and demonstrates a process of augmentation in God's magnificence. In other words, the more collected the human's consciousness is, the more obvious the God's greatness is to the sight and perception.
The second quatrain of the octave begins with posing a question about how it is possible, in spite of God's presence in the world, for mankind to be oblivious to his authority, "his rod" which demonstrates the God's punishing power and his beauty as manifested in nature. Through the repetition of "have trod" in line five, one can infer the successive assault of mankind on natural world and the words "seared", "bleared", and "smeared" which contribute to some internal rhyme indicate society's pollution through commerce and strenuous works. In fact, flourish in economy and industry may corrupt nature to such extent that human is dissociated from nature and consequently from God.
The sestet, however, offers a tone of optimism and expresses another aspect of God's power which is not necessarily contradictory to that of the octave. Yet, despite the fact that human interminably exploits nature for his diverse purposes, it has never been destroyed altogether, but continues to be revitalized, since "There lives the dearest freshness deep down things" which signifies the overwhelming presence of the omnipotent and compassionate "Holly Ghost" in nature. Lines eleven and twelve represent the sun which rises after it sets, however, there is an alternative interpretation that this cycle refers to regular changing of seasons in which spring with its productivity and fertility comes after winter that indicates the process of renewal in nature. Moreover, the word "wing" which belongs to "the Holly Ghost", possesses different positive connotations in Bible and is associated with God's healing, protection and the strength he bestows to man; therefore, one can infer from the sestet that God shows unlimited mercy to all the living organisms by means of regenerating nature and protecting it from being deteriorated.
In accordance with the last two lines of the poem, "the Holly Ghost over the bent world broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings", the God sits like a bird over the world to protect it from human's self-inflicted destruction. From these two lines, one of the alternative meanings of transcendentalism in Christianity comes to mind which asserts that God transcends the manifest world and exists above and independent of the universe; however, he interacts with it. Further suggestion for this imagery is pertaining to the baptism of Jesus, when "he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him" (3). With respect to this quotation, it can be inferred that Hopkins as a Jesuit priest correlates the theme of the sextet and the fact that Christ, the second person of the Holly Trinity and embodied in human form, received divinely created human soul. Accordingly, dove-like protection and regeneration of nature by God bring the resurrection of Jesus to mind.
This poem is in conformity with other works by Hopkins either in subject matter or style. His inclination towards natural and original beauty justifies the conviction that nature is fresh only with God's presence, even though, man is completely negligent to the presence of this "Holly Ghost" in the octave. Nevertheless, he terminates the poem in a positive note by suggesting a brighter future for the world. In addition, he suggests that this spiritual source of life which is pivotal to continue existence is manifest in nature for those who are enthusiastic for tracing God's power in their surroundings.
Notes:
(1) The New American Bible. Nashville: Catholic Bible Press, 1987.
(2) Boyle, Robert S.J. Metaphor in Hopkins. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1961.
(3) ibid.
Alireza Haratikia