God's Grandeur

Gerard Manley Hopkins

 

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 and 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 and with ah! bright wings.

 

Poems by This Author

'The child is father to the man.' by Gerard Manley Hopkins
The child is father to the man
As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies dráw fláme by Gerard Manley Hopkins
As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies dráw fláme
Carrion Comfort by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Not, I'll not, carrion comfort, Despair, not feast on thee;
I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark, Not Day by Gerard Manley Hopkins
I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day.
Peace by Gerard Manley Hopkins
When will you ever, Peace, wild wooddove, shy wings shut
Pied Beauty by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Glory be to God for dappled things--
Spring by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Nothing is so beautiful as spring
Spring and Fall by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Margaret, are you grieving
The times are nightfall, look, their light grows less by Gerard Manley Hopkins
The times are nightfall, look, their light grows less
The Windhover by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Caught this morning morning's minion, king-