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In this sonnet, Hopkins juxtaposes the wonders of God against the achievements of humankind.
God and humankind are presented as opposites, not so much Goodness vs Evil but rather
Perfection vs Imperfection.
Humankind, our works and our deeds are portrayed as tainted, common and ugly as opposed
to God whose creation is perceived as fresh and warm and sparkling with life and light. In this
poem, one should examine closely the words which the poet uses to portray each of these
juxtapositions.
ABOUT THE POET
Gerard Manley Hopkins was born in 1844, the first of nine children. His parents were staunch
Anglicans.
He attended a grammar school in Highgate and then continued on to Oxford University. His
search for religion, however, caused him to fall under the influence of the great Catholic
convert, John Henry Newman. As a result, Hopkins became a Catholic in 1866 and then joined
the Society of Jesus the following year.
Initially Hopkins burned all his early poetry because he believed it was a symbol of ambition in
the world. He later changed his mind, being influenced by the writings of the medieval scholar
Duns Scotus who saw art as a reflection of God within the world.
From this concept, Hopkins developed his philosophy of Inscape and Instress.
Inscape is the underlying form that marks the essence of all things, the God-principle
which exists in everything. Instress, on the other hand, is our ability to experience that
God-principle.
Everything has Inscape. In other words, everything has a God-principle. However, not
everyone has Instress. The person who watches the glory of the setting sun but is
reminded of a poached egg clearly lacks Instress.
The poet studied Theology in Wales, which is probably where he picked up the Welsh lyrical
way of speaking and writing. He would translate this into his poetry in what he called Sprung
Rhythm.
Hopkins was ordained a priest in 1877 and then worked as a curate in Sheffield, Oxford and
London before moving on to become parish priest in slum parishes in Manchester, Liverpool
and Glasgow. None of this was intellectually suitable for a man who had such a brilliant mind.
He then became a professor of Latin and Greek, first at Stonyhurst College in Lancashire and
then at University College in Dublin. His frustration, however, at having to mark a plethora of
mediocre scripts sent him spiralling into a state of deep depression from which he would not
emerge.
He died of typhoid fever in 1889. He was 44 years of age.
Have you looked at the questions in the right column?
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TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer the following questions:
There are essentially two main sonnet types: the Shakespearian or Elizabethan sonnet, and
the Petrarchan or Italian sonnet.
- What type of sonnet is this one -- and be able to explain why. (6)
[Need help?]
The difference between the two types of sonnet lies in their style and method of argument.
The Shakespearian or Elizabeth sonnet consists of three QUATRAINS and ends
with a RHYMING COUPLET. The poet develops a single argument through the quatrains, and
then reaches a conclusion to his argument in the rhyming couplet. The sonnet's rhyming
scheme is something like this:
abab cdcd efef gg
The Petrarchan or Italian sonnet consists of an OCTAVE and a SESTET. One
argument is developed during the octave, while another argument is developed in the sestet.
The rhyming scheme is usually something like this:
abbacddc efgefg OR efefef
"God's Grandeur" is very clearly a Petrarchan sonnet. The dead give-away is its rhyming
scheme while there a clear division between OCTAVE and SESTET. The OCTAVE deals with
the contrast between the beauty of God's creation and the squalor of mankind's creation. The
SESTET, on the other hand, is a meditation on the beauty of the dawn through which the poet
witnesses the presence of his God.
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"The world is charged with the grandeur of God."
- What does the poet mean? (4)
[Need help?]
Hopkins would have been well aware of electricity and static electricity -- and indeed of the
forces in nature which leads to lightning. The amazing electrical power that is generated in a
thunderstorm has, of course, been the subject of poetry even as far back as early Sumerian
days, and can be read in some of the Psalms.
Hopkins then sees this power that exists within the world -- this charge -- as a reflection of
the power, the majesty and the splendour of God. For the poet, it is indeed the voice of God.
As the ancient psalmist wrote while witnessing a thunderstorm, "The voice of God resounds
in the heavens."
For Hopkins, the whole world contains this charge, this grandeur that is God.
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"It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed."
- To what does the pronoun "it" refer? (2)
[Need help?]
"It" refers to the world that is filled with the grandeur of God. Or one could summarise
it by saying that "it" refers simply to that very grandeur of God: "The grandeur of God
will flame out".
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- What does the poet mean when he says, "It will flame out"? (2)
[Need help?]
"It will flame out" means that there will be flashes of light, or flashes of flame. The poet
compares the wonder of God to the flashes of light that "flame out" when one shakes
a very shiny surface, as when one shakes aluminium foil.
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- What figure of speech is being used in the phrase, "like shining from shook foil"?
What indeed is "shook foil"? (6)
[Need help?]
It's a simile, isn't it?
"Foil" has two meanings. First, it is metal that is rolled out into thin sheets. If one
shakes these thin sheets, light will be reflected from it in a series of flashes.
But a foil is also a thin sword, today used in fencing. Again, if one shakes this sword, light will
flash from its shiny blade.
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- How does it "gather to a greatness, like the ooze of oil crushed"? (4)
[Need help?]
When oil is crushed from any form of oil-bearing seed, it then gathers together either as a pool
or on the surface of water -- where it reflects the colours of the rainbow. It "gathers to
greatness", therefore, reflecting every colour that is imaginable.
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"Why do men then now not reck his rod?"
- What does Hopkins mean when he says this? (4)
[Need help?]
"Reck" means "to pay heed to" or "to obey". If one is "reckless",
one does dangerous things without paying heed to the consequences.
The poet presents here a very Old Testamentish version of a God who rules over everyone,
carrying his staff or whip with which to lash his slaves. Or perhaps the rod represents the
sceptre that is held by a kingly God, the rod which represents God's right to rule over his
subjects.
The poet therefore does not understand why people do not obey God. Why do they not
recognise that God is the ultimate king, who rules over all and demands absolute obedience?
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