God's Grandeur

1) The theme is about the relationship between man, the natural world, and god. The speaker in "God’s Grandeur" proposes that the meaning of life and the purpose of human existence can be discovered through nature. He looks deeply at the natural world, and doesn’t hold back his or her contempt for the ways in which people and their industries have treated nature. Yet, Hopkins claims that the consequences of this treatment, is only on the surface. The speaker is telling us about his or her religious visions as well. The speaker sees God as intimately connected to the earth.

2) The first four lines express the poet's excitement in realizing the world is filled with God's power. God’s Grandeur means God’s magnificence or glory. The word "charged" in line one suggests electricity; its association and sound suggest the world crackles with energy. The second line furthers this effect by comparing his energy to "like shining from shook foil," to its reflection, light and sound. Here there is an implied comparison to lightning. Line three could be suggesting another way of perceiving God's power: slow accumulations of conscious actions like the collection of drops of oil as they are pressed from olives or seeds.

a. In lines 7-8 they are talking about degrading nature. Line seven uses the word smudge refers to how man is ruining beauty and nature by “smudging” it. Soil is bare now is referring to the lack of vegetation which refers to man’s pollution of nature.

b. lines 11-12 are symbolizing the changing of seasons I think. Brown brink means that they are on the brink, or edge, of brown, meaning soil or spring.

3)

a. Reck his rod. This is ultimately saying recognize God’s authority. It says then now which means that men then use to recognize it, but now men are aware of it but don’t really care.

b. Spent. They say that nature is never spent, which is the main thesis of the poem.

c. Bent. The bent world is referring to how man’s corrupt world. Usually when things are the way they were intended to be you could say that they are on a straight path, but because of man’s corruption, they are now on a bent path.

4)

a. Alliteration: God’s Grandeur; flame, foil; reck, rod; shining, shook; greatness, gathers; last, lights; and brown, brink.

b. Consonance, assonance and internal rhyme – Smeared, seared, bleared.