God's Grandeur
God's Grandeur
Gerald Manley Hopkins
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck 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 lights off the black West 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.
Comments
This has been one of my favorite poems since I first read it in the 11th grade. I had been thinking about it again just this week. It's always nice to come across it.
Posted by: bill | May 26, 2003 9:03 AM
One of my favourites too. I have written it into the blank page in my Bible opposite Genesis.
To me, the two are in the same vein, the total wonder of God's creation.
Shalom,
Jan
Posted by: Jan | May 27, 2003 6:14 PM
And though the last lights off the black West 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
what does this little paragraph mean???
Posted by: gemma | September 21, 2003 11:23 AM
When speaking of the "black West" think of the sunrise-how it's dark when in the east it's light.
This "spring" can take on a double meaning of sunset and sunrise, since the lights go out...understanding of God is shunned.
God then is described in the dimesion of the holy ghost (a trinitarian thing- god the father, god the son, and god the holy ghost). This also means the dawn of a new, regenerated life. How nature is as inexhaustible as God. The last few lines imply that God is (as Emily Dickinson states of "hope") "a thing with wings". He is described as being a dove, the bird of peace found throughout the bible (Noah's ark, Jesus's baptizm). :) well, that's my interpretation anyways. i really like this poem. if you want to write to me, the link is there. later!
-mariposa]
ps- i'm not a trinitarian person myself,however.
Posted by: mariposa | October 14, 2003 7:26 PM
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Posted by: mariposa | October 14, 2003 7:30 PM
hi-
what does "world broods with warm breast" mean?
Thanks
Posted by: Shukri Olow | April 29, 2004 7:47 PM