Gerard Hopkins wrote God's Grandeur in 1877 right around the time he was ordained as a priest. The poem deals with his feelings about God's presence and power in the world. He could not understand how the people inhabiting the earth could refuse or be distracted from God. This confusion was due to the greatness of God's power and overall existence that, to Hopkins, seemed impossible and sinful to ignore. However, as the poem progresses Hopkins expresses hope in the world and God's everlasting presence in it. This poem has much meaning to it and expresses the thoughts and feelings that Hopkins was having at the time he wrote it. When one first reads God's Grandeur it is hard to fully understand what Hopkins was trying to convey. One must …show more content…
The first point is the prominence and greatness of God in our world. The second builds off of the first, questioning the lack of respect, worship, or simple acknowledgement of God by the human race. The third point continues Hopkins's thinking process by expressing hope in the Holy Ghost and his never-ending existence in the world. The first point of the poem that Hopkins desired to convey is in the first three lines. The poem starts off by giving a description of God's grandeur in our world. The first line is representative of the time period that the poem was written, "The world is charged with the grandeur of God." Hopkins's use of the word "charged" to describe God's presence, may it have been intentional or not, reflects the world that Hopkins lived in. In 1877 electricity had been discovered, but it was still an uncontrollable and indescribable mystery. It was a power that could not be fully explained just like God's presence on the earth, something that is still as much of a mystery today. It was almost God-like, and was a perfect was to explain God's existence. Another comparison is made at the end of line three, "It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil." The world under God is being compared to the ooze of oil, expressing how God's will holds the earth together like oil. Throughout the poem Hopkins uses alliteration very effectively and in these first few lines it is blatantly evident. Certain consonants are used in
In the poem there is also an idea of man verses nature, this relates to the survival of the fittest. John Foulcher shows this through the use of first person point of view. For example in the second stanza “Then above me the sound drops” this again possesses sensory imagery creating a deeper human aura throughout the poem. Foulcher further uses a human aura to build a sense of natural imagery for example in the last stanza : “I pick up these twigs and leave them” adding closure
Reflections Within is a non-traditional stanzaic poem made up of five stanzas containing thirty-four lines that do not form a specific metrical pattern. Rather it is supported by its thematic structure. Each of the five stanzas vary in the amount of lines that each contain. The first stanza is a sestet containing six lines. The same can be observed of the second stanza. The third stanza contains eight lines or an octave. Stanzas four and five are oddly in that their number of lines which are five and nine.
Edwards’ use of “the mere pleasure of God” is to restate his point throughout the poem that everything is done under God (Edwards). Edwards use of this phrase not only restates God’s power but also show the reader that have life because of God. God could easily take their life away if they anger him and continue their sinful actions. This would terrify readers into behaving as God would like, so they do not continue to anger him. Repetition helps to escalate the text and create a bigger impact on the
of the human mind to a new influx of light and power; he believes in inspiration, and in ecstasy.
As shown by his writing, Hodge must be a powerful preacher. The book is structured like a series of sermons. Yet, while this works wonderfully in the pulpit, it does not inspire as well in print. The text requires several readings to understand fully the one message – the cross.
Finally, his call to know and experience God in a “vitally Trinitarian” way by the Spirit captures the very essence of Paul’s ministry and encapsulates the entire thesis of the book.
Both Gerald Manley Hopkins and William Blake explore the conflicts between one’s opinions and the faith which they devoutly believe. The poems The Garden of Love and Hopkins’ Thou Art Indeed Just, Lord each show the persona doubting the philosophical qualms of life surrounding Catholicism and whether spending “life upon thy cause,” is meaningful. As a child, Blake read the Bible to enhance his reading skills, however developed views correlating to the Swedenborgian church which holds the Catholic church’s views without the institutionalised feeling which Blake despised of in Catholicism. The Garden of Love intertwines his beliefs into the poetry, as depicted with the strong imagery between the vibrant childhood memory of the surroundings in comparison to the older man’s views. However,
Richard Blanco is a Cuban- American poet who was given the oppurunity to write an inaugaration poem for Barack Obama's second swearing-in. He wrote a poem titled "One Today" that praised the good and unique things about the United States and also the everyday people who's daily routines help to make America the proud country that it is.
In the book Surprised by Hope by N. T. Wright, he discusses salvation, the new creation, what our bodies will be like after Christ returns. Will the heavens come down to earth or will humans go up to heaven? These are all points that Christians need to ask themselves and begin to think about. He lays these topics out in clear, concise ways so the reader can comprehend what his points are.
This poem is therefore widely a statement of pantheism, which is a position that god and nature are the same. According to Matt Slick, (2011) the word pantheism is derived from Greek words "Pan" meaning all and the other section from "theos" meaning God. This then implies that all nature found in the universe, from the stars, mountains, planets, wind, rain, storms are all part of what God is hence pantheists contest that God is all and all nature is part of God. This should not be confused with the Christian perspective that God created all nature but these are inferior to him and are in no way equal to him.
William Blake’s poetry is considered through the Romantics era and they access through the sublime. The Romantics poetry through the sublime is beyond comprehension and spiritual fullness. A major common theme is a nature (agnostic religion). In William Blake’s poem “The Tyger” he describes the tiger as a creature that was created by a higher power some time before. In Blake’s poem he questions, “What immortal hand or eye/ Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?” (Blake 22-23). He describes the tiger as a form of symmetry that can be seen as evil, yet have intriguing features such as those that make the tiger a beautiful creation. Blake also questions if that the higher being who created the tiger also created all else around the world such as a human being. Blake shifts his first stanzas from the tiger to the creator. Not only is he questioning who created the tiger, but he is also describing the beauty and evil of the world. The beauty that the Romantics believe in is nature and one evil seen through the world is materialism that distract humans from the beauty of nature 's gifts. He believes that people lose touch with spirituality when haven’t given to nature. Blake also illustrated his own works through
“The relationship between the energies of the inquiring mind that an intelligent reader brings to the poem and the poem’s refusal to yield a single comprehensive interpretation enacts vividly the everlasting intercourse between the human mind, with its instinct to organise and harmonise, and the baffling powers of the universe about it.”
Allusion is also an important part of this poem because of the way the author uses it to connect to the outside works that may also encourage the reader to think in a certain way that goes along with the themes of the poem. The first allusion, found in lines 7 and 8, are to the Greek gods Icarus and Prometheus. This allusion requires the readers to think about gods and religion, which is a major part of the theme of this poem. Another allusion I see is in line 20, which refers to another one of Blake’s poems, “The Lamb.” This allusion is significant because the speaker asks, “Did he who made the Lamb make thee?” (20) And he wonders whether or not the same creator who made something so gentle and pure could also make such an evil animal. The allusion itself brings the reader to think about the other poems and to contrast the two completely
Disgusted, the speaker sees how society has morally degraded itself in exchange for wealth and greed. The frustrated tone of the poem becomes further elevated when the speaker exclaims, "We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!" (4). Blinded by the daily drudgeries of life, people have become impervious to nature, despite some of the grand displays that one can behold. The speaker describes beautiful images of nature such as the sea, howling winds, and flowers that no longer create an emotional response in people. Since the world has become so out of touch with nature, mankind is no longer able to appreciate the drama that takes place between the wind and the moon. Additionally, the speaker claims that society has become so indifferent to nature that, "Little we see in Nature that is ours;" (3).
Since it does, when reading each line, there is a resilient connection that allows the reader to put together and feel for what the narrator is speaking of. As each line is metrically linked, the words are further recited in a durable voice and the poem is virtually put together, musically. In the first and second lines of the third stanza, an apostrophe, a figure of speech that directly addresses an absent person or entity, is presented, “We smile, but O great Christ, our cries to thee from tortured souls arise.”