God's Grandeur
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 oilCrushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared withtoil;And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell:the soilIs 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 wentOh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs--Because the Holy Ghost over the bentWorld broods with warm breast and with ah!bright wings.
Words in this poem
- shook v. t.
- To pack, as staves, in a shook.
- reck v. t.
- To make account of; to care for; to heed; to regard. [AS. reccan, remccan, to care for; akin to OS. rokian, OHG. ruochan, G. geruhen, Icel. rækja, also to E. reckon, rake an implement. See Rake, and cf. Reckon.]
- seared a.
- Scorched; cauterized; hence, figuratively, insensible; not susceptible to moral influences.
- bleared a.
- Dimmed, as by a watery humor; affected with rheum.
- smudge n.
- A suffocating smoke. Grose. [Cf. Dan. smuds smut, E. smutch, or smoke.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- brink n.
- The edge, margin, or border of a steep place, as of a precipice; a bank or edge, as of a river or pit; a verge; a border; as, the brink of a chasm. Also Fig. [Dan. brink edge, verge; akin to Sw. brink declivity, hill, Icel. brekka; cf. LG. brink a grassy hill, W. bryn hill, bryncyn hillock.]
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
God's Grandeur is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins Now First Published, Project Gutenberg ebook #22403; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Gerard Manley Hopkins, God's Grandeur, in Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22403, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hopkins-poems/god-s-grandeur.html, id L04378.
Form and metre
God's Grandeur is 17 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.4 syllables. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABBAA-B-BA godA · foilB · oilB · rodA · trodA · with · toilB · smell · soilB · shodA
- 2 ABABA-B spentA · thingsB · wentA · springsB · bentA · ah · wingsB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| THE world is charged with the grandeur of God. | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| It will flame out, like shining from shook foil; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil | 12 | ·/˘··/˘····· |
| Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod? | 10 | ·········· |
| Generations have trod, have trod, have trod; | 10 | ·˘/˘······ |
| And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with | 10 | ····˘····· |
| toil; | 1 | · |
| And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: | 8 | ········ |
| the soil | 2 | ·· |
| Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And for all this, nature is never spent; | 10 | ····/˘·/˘· |
| There lives the dearest freshness deep down things; | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| And though the last lights off the black West went | 10 | ·········· |
| Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs-- | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Because the Holy Ghost over the bent | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| World broods with warm breast and with ah! | 8 | ········ |
| bright wings. | 2 | ·· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.