God’s Grandeur

Main Idea: The poet expresses the point that modern civilization has sought industrial and

economic growth much to the detriment of the natural wonder and beauty of

the earth. Despite this, he makes it clear that the almighty power and divinity of

God is continually restoring the nature’s magnificence though humans continue

to damage it.

Genre: Lyric

Form: Sonnet

Themes: Nature, Religion

The power of God and his manifestation in nature.

Man’s indifference to nature.

The regenerative power of nature.

Mood: The poem creates an atmosphere of reverence as it highlights God’s never

ending bounty and grace.

Tone: The tone is one of gratitude and awe.

Diction:

Imagery: Hopkins mainly uses strong and vivid imagery to convey two themes. God’s

greatness and man’s indifference to nature.

Line 2: “It will flame out, like shining from shook foil.” God’s greatness is

compared to the bright flashes of light reflected by foil as it reacts to

sunlight. The light emitted is extremely bright and great just like God’s

power is.

Line 3: “It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil.” The writer uses the

alluring image of rich oil gracefully seeping through fresh seeds to show

us how wonderful God’s power is.

Lines 6 & 7: “And all is seared with trade, bleared, smeared with toil. And

wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell; the soil.” These words

“bleared, smeared and seared” and “smudge” simply serve to show how

man is spoiling nature’s magnificence with the work that they do.

Devices: Simile:

Line 2: “Like shining from shook foil.” The writer compares God’s

greatness to the powerful and bright light reflected from foil in light.

Line 3: “Like the ooze of oil.” The writer compares God’s greatness to the

magnificent slow and graceful movement of oil.

Alliteration:

Stanza one each has many alliterations which give the poem a nice

rhythm. They are “Grandeur of God, Shining from Shook foil, Gather to a

Greatness, Reck his Rod, man’s Smudge and Shares man’s Smell; the Soil,

and Foot Feel.”

Lines 9 – 12 also have small alliterations which have the same effect.

“Nature is Never spent, Dearest freshness Deep Down things, West Went

and Brown Brink.”

Personification:

Line 7: “And wears man’s smudge.” This suggests that man has

succeeded in making over the earth in his own image (i.e buildings). But

we can take off what we wear so the image remains on the surface.

Onomatopoeia:

Line 5: The repetition of "trod" sounds like people walking heavily. The

repetition of the words also symbolizes how man is continually damaging

nature without giving it a rest.

Shifts: In stanza 1 the write states that man has continually been spoiling the

magnificence of nature despite the fact that it was made by their almighty

creator. In the stanza two however he expresses the fact that nature is forever

replenishing its wonder with God’s power.