Gods Grandeur by Gerard Manley Hopkins - Essay Example

Generally speaking, it would seem natural in that regard to come up with such a composition where the narrator appears awestruck with the ‘grandness’ of God that Hopkins necessitates writing “God’s Grandeur” in the structure of an Italian sonnet in which he incorporates a unique style of ‘sprung rhythm’ with which he has been widely identified. The poem bears the purpose of summoning forth the attention of readers to comprehend the nature of God as a divine being and become transported to a dimension of enlightenment instead of preferring to dwell in the mundane life of pure dull work.

         Through the first part of “God’s Grandeur”, the octave consists of rhyming pairs ‘ foil/oil’, ‘rod / trod’, and ‘toil/soil’ out of consecutive lines whereas ‘God-shod’ comes from two separate lines in the beginning and the end. This pattern exhibits how the poet renders the rhythm to sound as though there exists ‘springing’ within intonations or tones so that the intended effects accord with the theme of revitalizing God’s qualities in a reader’s mind or imagination. Hopkins makes use of words that possess relevance with each other as in the case of ‘toil’ and ‘soil’ as well as ‘rod’ and ‘trod’.

            In beginning with “The world is charged with the grandeur of God”, the poet means for the reader to be reminded of the specific knowledge of power via the verb word ‘charged’ with which may be associated an electrical charge, electricity, or an electric field full of leaders and electrifying potential each of which is symbolic of power. Based on this perspective, Hopkins seemingly desires a critical reader to draw an analogy between the flowing charges to light and God’s power to God’s consuming brilliance and somewhere, perceive the overwhelming difference between man and God. The speaker of the third viewpoint proceeds to state in awe: “It will flame out, like shining from shook foil; It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil.” Read More