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. "
About Hopkins
Gerard Hopkins, the Jesuit priest and one of the most famous English poets would have been literally unknown if it was not for his friend Robert Bridges, who published his poems. Hopkins went through a period of doubt, spiritual battle within himself and anxiety which made him totally oblivious to his talent and a disillusionment with the world and his life.
Born July 28, 1844 to High Church Anglicans, at a mere young age he won the poetry prize for "The Escorial" at grammar school in Highgate. Later on a scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford would set the path for him which was destined by God and by the sheer talent of penning poetry. His influences were firstly painter-poet like D. G. Rossetti , Pater and John Ruskin and by the poetry of the devout Anglicans George Herbert and Christina Rossetti. Ultimately the religious influence came from John Henry Newman, who had converted from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism in 1845.
Gerard Manley Hopkins
by George Giberne - 1859
Achieving a ‘double-first’ in 1867 he won First-Class degrees in Classics and Greats, a educational achievement which made him star of Balliol.
The following year he entered the Society of Jesus. Here is where his first area of doubt appeared. Assuming that the practice of poetry was too individualistic, ambitious and self-indulgent for a Jesuit priest, he sacrificed his talent and burned his early poems. Not until he studied the writings of Duns Scotus in 1872 did his doubt was laid to rest, and he decided that his poetry might not necessarily conflict with Jesuit principles.
In 1874, studying theology in North Wales, he learned Welsh, and was later to adapt the rhythms of Welsh poetry to his own verse, inventing what he called "sprung rhythm." The event that startled him into speech was the sinking of the Deutschland ship, whose passengers included five Catholic nuns exiled from Germany. The Wreck of the Deutschland is a tour de force containing most of the devices he had been working out in theory for the past few years, but was too radical in style to be printed.
A troubled priesthood and the resulting 'terrible' poems
From his ordination as a priest in 1877 until 1879, Hopkins served unsuccessfully as preacher and assistant to the parish priest in Sheffield, Oxford, and London; during the next three years he found inspiring but exhausting work as parish priest in the slums of the cities of Manchester, Liverpool, and Glasgow. More important, however, was his second doubt that his prayers no longer reached God; and this doubt produced the "terrible" sonnets. His agony prodded by the exhaustion from his work, the conditions of the common people, the poverty of the underprivileged - all were a huge factor in the melancholy of his poetry. He refused to give way to his depression, however, and his last words as he lay dying of typhoid fever on June 8, 1889, were, "I am happy, so happy."
Apart from a few uncharacteristic poems scattered in periodicals, Hopkins was not published during his own lifetime. His friend Robert Bridges (1844-1930), whom he met at Oxford and who became Poet Laureate in 1913, served as his literary caretaker: Hopkins sent him copies of his poems, and Bridges arranged for their publication in 1918.
Hopkins poetry will always be among the greatest poems of faith and doubt in the English language.
Offa's Dyke was the corner of North Wales that Gerard Manley Hopkins came in 1874. He spent three years studying theology at St Beuno's College in preparation for the priesthood. It was also here that he penned some of his most memorable poetry, including Pied Beauty, Spring and God's Grandeur.
About God’s Grandeur (1877)
A brief introduction to the poem
The first four lines of the octave describe a natural world through which God’s presence runs like a powerful force. The force is not ubiquitous, but briefly appears. These appearances are not commonplace, because it is the great Almighty but visible in flashes. However, humans by their spiritual blindness do not understand or try to comprehend the impact of this force.
Second line - “It will flame out, like shining from shook foil”
Hopkins himself wrote in a letter regarding this line -
'I mean foil in its sense of leaf or tinsel, and no other word whatever will give the effect I want. Shaken gold-foil gives off broad glares like sheet lightning and also, and this is true of nothing else, owing to its zigzag dints and crossings and network of small many cornered facets, a sort of fork lightning too.'
Hopkins also uses the imagery of a well of deep rich oil. He writes that God’s presence has to be discovered, dug up and unveiled with an equally deep urge in the human heart. This presence then swells up and oozes out “to a greatness” when tapped with a certain kind of patient pressure. Given these clear, strong proofs of God’s presence in the world, the poet asks how it is that humans fail to heed “reck” God’s divine authority “his rod”.
Fifth line - “Generations have trod, have trod, have trod”
Line five gathers an urgency in Hopkins’ veiled message through the poem. Having already stated the force of God and the greatness of his being, this line shows the tearing down and negative depth of human destruction. This line contains iambs, it repeats the words ‘have trod’ to mournfully describe the changes now in the world - large scale industrialization, poverty etc. He laments that the change is not slow, it doesn't give heed to pause and evaluate if corrections can be made but it is cruel in its very speed, unheeding and making huge strides towards material progress and leaving destruction in the path beyond.
The second quatrain describes the state of modern human life—the routine life of human labour, and the humdrum of “toil” and “trade.” The landscape in its natural state reflects God as its creator; but work and preference for material wealth over the spiritual have transformed the landscape. Now humans are robbed of their beautiful innate sensitivity to the natural beauty of the landscape and instead they see the beguiling beauty of wealth and material world.
The sestet asserts that, in spite of the fallenness of Hopkins’s contemporary Victorian world, nature does not cease offering up its spiritual gifts. Permeating the world is a deep “freshness” that testifies to the continual renewing power of God’s creation. This is possible because of God’s never ending and redeeming mercy. This power of renewal is like second chances given every new day and is seen in the way morning always waits on the other side of dark night. The source of this constant regeneration is the grace of a God who “broods” over a seemingly lifeless world with the patient nurture of a mother hen, a great guiding shepherd.
Form of the poem
“God’s Grandeur” is an Italian sonnet—it contains fourteen lines divided into an octave and a sestet, which are separated by a shift in the argumentative direction of the poem. The meter here is not the “sprung rhythm” for which Hopkins was famous, but it does vary somewhat from the iambic pentameter lines of the conventional sonnet.
Imagery used in the poem
The flame and shook foil
From his ordination as a priest in 1877 until 1879, Hopkins served unsuccessfully as preacher and assistant to the parish priest in Sheffield, Oxford, and London; during the next three years he found inspiring but exhausting work as parish priest in the slums of the cities of Manchester, Liverpool, and Glasgow. More important, however, was his second doubt that his prayers no longer reached God; and this doubt produced the "terrible" sonnets. His agony prodded by the exhaustion from his work, the conditions of the common people, the poverty of the underprivileged - all were a huge factor in the melancholy of his poetry. He refused to give way to his depression, however, and his last words as he lay dying of typhoid fever on June 8, 1889, were, "I am happy, so happy."
Apart from a few uncharacteristic poems scattered in periodicals, Hopkins was not published during his own lifetime. His friend Robert Bridges (1844-1930), whom he met at Oxford and who became Poet Laureate in 1913, served as his literary caretaker: Hopkins sent him copies of his poems, and Bridges arranged for their publication in 1918.
Hopkins poetry will always be among the greatest poems of faith and doubt in the English language.
Offa's Dyke was the corner of North Wales that Gerard Manley Hopkins came in 1874. He spent three years studying theology at St Beuno's College in preparation for the priesthood. It was also here that he penned some of his most memorable poetry, including Pied Beauty, Spring and God's Grandeur.
About God’s Grandeur (1877)
A brief introduction to the poem
With the industrial and commercial revolutions gathering pace in Britain, there was unprecedented pressure on authorities which diluted down to local heads. Result was that there was toil and work to be done which directly and indirectly affected the environment - and decades later we still see the affects. Hopkins, a sensitive, nature loving writer, deeply spiritual Christian priest and an observant poet, expressed his dismay at the ruination by writing sonnets of texture and depth. He draws in his denunciation of industrialization and blends in with the purity of the first creation of God- nature, as it was purely made without blemishes of human pollution.
Further analysis of the poem
Further analysis of the poem
The first four lines of the octave describe a natural world through which God’s presence runs like a powerful force. The force is not ubiquitous, but briefly appears. These appearances are not commonplace, because it is the great Almighty but visible in flashes. However, humans by their spiritual blindness do not understand or try to comprehend the impact of this force.
Second line - “It will flame out, like shining from shook foil”
Hopkins himself wrote in a letter regarding this line -
'I mean foil in its sense of leaf or tinsel, and no other word whatever will give the effect I want. Shaken gold-foil gives off broad glares like sheet lightning and also, and this is true of nothing else, owing to its zigzag dints and crossings and network of small many cornered facets, a sort of fork lightning too.'
Hopkins also uses the imagery of a well of deep rich oil. He writes that God’s presence has to be discovered, dug up and unveiled with an equally deep urge in the human heart. This presence then swells up and oozes out “to a greatness” when tapped with a certain kind of patient pressure. Given these clear, strong proofs of God’s presence in the world, the poet asks how it is that humans fail to heed “reck” God’s divine authority “his rod”.
Fifth line - “Generations have trod, have trod, have trod”
Line five gathers an urgency in Hopkins’ veiled message through the poem. Having already stated the force of God and the greatness of his being, this line shows the tearing down and negative depth of human destruction. This line contains iambs, it repeats the words ‘have trod’ to mournfully describe the changes now in the world - large scale industrialization, poverty etc. He laments that the change is not slow, it doesn't give heed to pause and evaluate if corrections can be made but it is cruel in its very speed, unheeding and making huge strides towards material progress and leaving destruction in the path beyond.
The second quatrain describes the state of modern human life—the routine life of human labour, and the humdrum of “toil” and “trade.” The landscape in its natural state reflects God as its creator; but work and preference for material wealth over the spiritual have transformed the landscape. Now humans are robbed of their beautiful innate sensitivity to the natural beauty of the landscape and instead they see the beguiling beauty of wealth and material world.
The sestet asserts that, in spite of the fallenness of Hopkins’s contemporary Victorian world, nature does not cease offering up its spiritual gifts. Permeating the world is a deep “freshness” that testifies to the continual renewing power of God’s creation. This is possible because of God’s never ending and redeeming mercy. This power of renewal is like second chances given every new day and is seen in the way morning always waits on the other side of dark night. The source of this constant regeneration is the grace of a God who “broods” over a seemingly lifeless world with the patient nurture of a mother hen, a great guiding shepherd.
Form of the poem
“God’s Grandeur” is an Italian sonnet—it contains fourteen lines divided into an octave and a sestet, which are separated by a shift in the argumentative direction of the poem. The meter here is not the “sprung rhythm” for which Hopkins was famous, but it does vary somewhat from the iambic pentameter lines of the conventional sonnet.
Imagery used in the poem
The flame and shook foil
Oil - Wealth depth of god’s providence
Reck his rod - The term reck his rod means to not take care of and be reckless to God's instrument of power, something like a lightning rod. Rod is also indicative of staff and it symbolises power and leadership, like an anchor. It has been shown in many times in various books of the Christian Bible’s Old Testament.
Trod - To reinforce the idea of mankind treading all over the earth,
Seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil :man;s smell - Reflecting the damage done through industry and the race for profit and also the rat race and struggle for wealth, status, overtaking each other.
Soil - Natural earth signifying both beauty as well as the platform for humans to work - whether for hard work or for earning quick money
Freshness deep down - Despite all of humankind's efforts to ruin the natural world, nature, through God, resists and refreshes itself.
Last lights - Signifying a hopeful last of the destroying industrial lights or the darkness right before dawn
Brown brink eastward - The darkness right before sunrise.
Holy Ghost - As the sun rises, the speaker acknowledges the presence of the Christian Holy Ghost, the active force of God, without flesh or known body, the third member of the Godhead.
Warm breast - Protective bosom of nurturing God
Bright wings - A god who when rightly worshopped can take us high with bright wings
Reck his rod - The term reck his rod means to not take care of and be reckless to God's instrument of power, something like a lightning rod. Rod is also indicative of staff and it symbolises power and leadership, like an anchor. It has been shown in many times in various books of the Christian Bible’s Old Testament.
Trod - To reinforce the idea of mankind treading all over the earth,
Seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil :man;s smell - Reflecting the damage done through industry and the race for profit and also the rat race and struggle for wealth, status, overtaking each other.
Soil - Natural earth signifying both beauty as well as the platform for humans to work - whether for hard work or for earning quick money
Freshness deep down - Despite all of humankind's efforts to ruin the natural world, nature, through God, resists and refreshes itself.
Last lights - Signifying a hopeful last of the destroying industrial lights or the darkness right before dawn
Brown brink eastward - The darkness right before sunrise.
Holy Ghost - As the sun rises, the speaker acknowledges the presence of the Christian Holy Ghost, the active force of God, without flesh or known body, the third member of the Godhead.
Warm breast - Protective bosom of nurturing God
Bright wings - A god who when rightly worshopped can take us high with bright wings
An early editon of Hopkins' poems.
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