1.
The theme of God’s Grandeur is the relation between God and Nature. In the first stanza, we are made to believe that even though the world is full of God’s spirit, it’s only temporary. “Why do men then now not reck his rod?” A question that seems to ask why people don’t take better care of the natural world. The Speaker, the poet, doesn’t seem to be impressed with people as he says that the world smells like people and the bad things they do like being careless of the world around them. “the soil is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod,” the poet indicates that our planet’s ground is bare, without trees, grass, or flowers. The word ‘shod’ an old term for shoes, allows us to fully realize that we have lost the connection to world around us because we can no longer feel it with our bare feet.
However, the next stanza has a different tone – a more reassuring tone that tries to allow us to believe that ‘nature is never spent’ because it lives underground too. The relationship between the West and East is very important. The connotations of black and brown are different. Black is dark where there is absolutely no light visible and can give off the feeling of death and hopelessness. People can perceive brown to be an earthy, vitality color because it’s lighter than black and is seen a lot in nature. The significance of using West and East is the idea that even though the sun always sets in the west bringing darkness and night, it always rises again in the east, bringing light and morning. The last few lines, the ‘Holy Ghost’ is connected to a bird – “Broods”: a family of young animals especially of a bird. “Breast”: mother bird’s keeps their chicks warm by using their chest. “Bright wings”: an appendage of a bird. So the ‘Holy Ghost’ watches over the ‘bent’ world just like a bird would with its children, in a comforting way.
The theme of the poem is that even though the world may be temporary, it’s believed that God will be watching over it for security no matter what people do to corrupt it. And even if people destroy the natural beauty and natures of the world, it will always still be there – because God is too.
2. Explain:
Simile: “It will flame out, like shining from shook foil.” The simile represents the idea that the fire will leave the earth one day because it’s only temporary. The irony with using foil is that it has a shiny side and then a dull side. If you were to shake foil, or crumple it, it would really only be damaging to one side – the bright shiny side. The earth, like just about anything else, has a good and bad side. The earth will flame out, the shining or the good of it, and then turn into something dull that could have crinkles that could represent problems or difficulties.
Symbols: Line 7-8: “And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil - Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod” The speaker believes the people stunk up or ruined the earth by their doings because of their ‘smudge’ or ‘soil’. Smudge is like a stain and soil can mean to make something dirty. The earth’s floor is bare without flowers or any living natural thing – and because of that people can’t walk on it, which disconnects them from the natural world. Shod is an old term for shoes – people have to wear their shoes to be able to walk around. It’s a solution for nothing because it doesn’t cure the world’s problems, it just helps ignore them.
Symbols: Line 11-12: “And though the last lights off the black West went - oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs” The connotations of black and brown are different. Black is dark where there is absolutely no light visible and can give off the feeling of death and hopelessness. People can perceive brown to be an earthy, vitality color because it’s lighter than black and is seen a lot in nature. The significance of using West and East is the idea that even though the sun always sets in the west bringing darkness and night, it always rises again in the east, bringing light and morning.
3. Explain:
“Reck his rod” (Line 4): ‘Reck’, or rec can be seen as the root word for RECognize. The term ‘rod’ is a symbol of authority or power so the speaker wants to know why people don’t acknowledge and respect the power that God has in the world and the environment.
“Spent” (Line 9): Spent is used when the poem shifts tones. It’s one of the first encouraging terms used in the poem to assure that nature will be around forever – it is ‘never spent’. Even though it could seem like it’s gone, it’s still hiding beneath us.
“Bent” (Line 13): Bent, meaning dishonest or corrupt is a different meaning than the connotation it has like a curved angle. However, both connotations can be used when describing the world that the speaker is describing. He made it obvious that the world was corrupt, but it could also be seen as curved. Being ‘curved or bent’ could mean something wrong or unusual, whereas straight could mean obedient or ordinary. God was watching over the ‘bent’, chaotic world.
4.
Alliterations:
However, the next stanza has a different tone – a more reassuring tone that tries to allow us to believe that ‘nature is never spent’ because it lives underground too. The relationship between the West and East is very important. The connotations of black and brown are different. Black is dark where there is absolutely no light visible and can give off the feeling of death and hopelessness. People can perceive brown to be an earthy, vitality color because it’s lighter than black and is seen a lot in nature. The significance of using West and East is the idea that even though the sun always sets in the west bringing darkness and night, it always rises again in the east, bringing light and morning. The last few lines, the ‘Holy Ghost’ is connected to a bird – “Broods”: a family of young animals especially of a bird. “Breast”: mother bird’s keeps their chicks warm by using their chest. “Bright wings”: an appendage of a bird. So the ‘Holy Ghost’ watches over the ‘bent’ world just like a bird would with its children, in a comforting way.
The theme of the poem is that even though the world may be temporary, it’s believed that God will be watching over it for security no matter what people do to corrupt it. And even if people destroy the natural beauty and natures of the world, it will always still be there – because God is too.
2. Explain:
Simile: “It will flame out, like shining from shook foil.” The simile represents the idea that the fire will leave the earth one day because it’s only temporary. The irony with using foil is that it has a shiny side and then a dull side. If you were to shake foil, or crumple it, it would really only be damaging to one side – the bright shiny side. The earth, like just about anything else, has a good and bad side. The earth will flame out, the shining or the good of it, and then turn into something dull that could have crinkles that could represent problems or difficulties.
Symbols: Line 7-8: “And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil - Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod” The speaker believes the people stunk up or ruined the earth by their doings because of their ‘smudge’ or ‘soil’. Smudge is like a stain and soil can mean to make something dirty. The earth’s floor is bare without flowers or any living natural thing – and because of that people can’t walk on it, which disconnects them from the natural world. Shod is an old term for shoes – people have to wear their shoes to be able to walk around. It’s a solution for nothing because it doesn’t cure the world’s problems, it just helps ignore them.
Symbols: Line 11-12: “And though the last lights off the black West went - oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs” The connotations of black and brown are different. Black is dark where there is absolutely no light visible and can give off the feeling of death and hopelessness. People can perceive brown to be an earthy, vitality color because it’s lighter than black and is seen a lot in nature. The significance of using West and East is the idea that even though the sun always sets in the west bringing darkness and night, it always rises again in the east, bringing light and morning.
3. Explain:
“Reck his rod” (Line 4): ‘Reck’, or rec can be seen as the root word for RECognize. The term ‘rod’ is a symbol of authority or power so the speaker wants to know why people don’t acknowledge and respect the power that God has in the world and the environment.
“Spent” (Line 9): Spent is used when the poem shifts tones. It’s one of the first encouraging terms used in the poem to assure that nature will be around forever – it is ‘never spent’. Even though it could seem like it’s gone, it’s still hiding beneath us.
“Bent” (Line 13): Bent, meaning dishonest or corrupt is a different meaning than the connotation it has like a curved angle. However, both connotations can be used when describing the world that the speaker is describing. He made it obvious that the world was corrupt, but it could also be seen as curved. Being ‘curved or bent’ could mean something wrong or unusual, whereas straight could mean obedient or ordinary. God was watching over the ‘bent’, chaotic world.
4.
Alliterations:
Grandeur of God; Flame, Foil; Shining, Shook; Gathers, Greatness; Ooze, Oil; Not, Now; Reck, Rod; Smudge, Shares, Smell, (Soil?); Last, Lights; Brown, Brink
Assonance:
Seared, Bleared, Smeared
Consonance:
Seared, Bleared, Smeared
Internal Rhyme:
Seared, Bleared, Smeared
Assonance:
Seared, Bleared, Smeared
Consonance:
Seared, Bleared, Smeared
Internal Rhyme:
Seared, Bleared, Smeared
The examples of these different things help to carry out the meaning of the poem, especially when factoring in the stressed and unstressed syllables. Hopkins tries to express each of his Speaker’s opinions in the way he uses alliterations and different rhyme schemes to get the full idea of the poem’s theme.
Question one is outstanding. Note that some of the words Hopkins uses has more than one meaning and he means both. In the last six lines there is a hint a pregnancy in nature (created by God).
ReplyDelete#2 - #3 Try not to repeat yourself.
#4 - How many speakers are there? Take these words that are connect by rhyme out of context and place them beside each other. What do they meaning? What does GATHERS GREATNESS mean? or OOZE OIL?