God's Grandeur

Gerard Manley Hopkins 1844 (Stratford, London) – 1889 (Dublin)



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 |&| 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 |&| with ah! bright wings.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 20, 2023

39 sec read
264

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBAABBA CDCDCD
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 706
Words 128
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 6

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Reverend Father Gerard Manley Hopkins, S. more…

All Gerard Manley Hopkins poems | Gerard Manley Hopkins Books

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1 Comment
  • farrind
    This is possible my most beloved poem. Gerard Hopkins is so gifted.
    LikeReply2 years ago

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