Gerard Manley Hopkins

“The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;” page 774, God’s Grandeur. Gerard Manley Hopkins did something different with poetry. He incorporated God into his style of work. I loved the way he intertwined God with nature.

I was most impressed with “God’s Grandeur”. On page 774, “The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;” The first two lines automatically connect God with nature. My interpretation of these lines is that God is in control of the world. He sees all and knows all. The flame represents fire which represents part of nature. And the foil is a leaf. The world will shine just as the leaf because God is in charge. On page 775, “Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;” First I thought about my own family and I interpreted this as generations grow, have grown, and have grown. On the contrary “trod” means walking; therefore Hopkins could have been thinking about walking on nature trails. Another passage on page 775, “…the soil Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.” I put emphasis on the “soil” because I looked at it from two perspectives. First I thought of the soul, my soul. Then I interpreted just as it is the soil that is on the ground. Whether you look at it from soul or soil, they both can be bare at some point in life. And it takes nourishment (water, food, friends, and family, spiritual life) to revive both. “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.” I interpreted these last few lines as the Holy Ghost being a shield around us with wings for extra protection. Of course the Holy Ghost is related to God and the wings represent birds. When a bird is in a storm it takes advantage of the wind to uplift it and to carry it through the storm.

It states in Hopkins’ introduction on page 773, “But his struggle to maintain religious faith, his respect for conventional verse forms, and his quest to find proof of God’s work in nature…” I can not speak for his critics, but in my opinion he proved God’s work in nature. “God’s Grandeur” and “Thou Art Indeed Just, Lord” are two pieces of his work that supported that God works in nature. “Thou Art Indeed Just, Lord” made me think of the 23 Psalms. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.” All of that relates to nature. Some of us may not think of God working with nature, but I believe God to be in all things!