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God's Grandeur and Other Poems
Excellent sampling of works by one of the Victorian era’s most individual poets includes—among other strikingly original poems—The Wreck of the Deutschland, "Carrion Comfort," "The Caged Skylark," "The Silver Jubilee," as well as a selection of unfinished poems and poem fragments.
54 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 24, 1995
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About the author
Gerard Manley Hopkins
225 books240 followersGerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) was an English poet, Roman Catholic convert, and Jesuit priest, whose 20th-century fame established him posthumously among the leading Victorian poets. His experimental explorations in prosody (especially sprung rhythm) and his use of imagery established him as a daring innovator in a period of largely traditional verse.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
August 2, 2016
This was my first introduction to Hopkins' poetry, a small volume published by the Trinity Forum. This man was quite a unique and innovative wordsmith, whom one reviewer said could be a Saint of modern Christian poetry.
Hopkins' poetry aches to be read aloud, but painstakingly so, as his alliterations and meter trickle and weave in fascinating ways. A good case in point:
"The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil ....
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"
Hopkins once said of his work, "no doubt my poetry errs on the side of oddness" --- But it's a singularly beautiful oddness, and I'll be back for more!
Hopkins' poetry aches to be read aloud, but painstakingly so, as his alliterations and meter trickle and weave in fascinating ways. A good case in point:
"The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil ....
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"
Hopkins once said of his work, "no doubt my poetry errs on the side of oddness" --- But it's a singularly beautiful oddness, and I'll be back for more!
October 29, 2008
This is what a scholastic Romantic pious Eminem would have written in Victorian England.
January 13, 2021
A wonderful collection. I’m learning to read poetry, and can’t claim to have gotten things right or understood all I read. However, Hopkins draws me in and I think I’ll read more about him and hopefully then grow in my appreciation for and understanding of his poetry.
“God’s Grandeur” I’ve known for years (Eugene Peterson, Lauren Wilkinson, and the Harris’ from A Rocha were always fond of quoting it), and a few others emerged for me as resonate favourites.
The last phrase of Inversaid was wonderful:
“What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
Oh let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.”
(Gerard Manley Hopkins, Inversaid)
“God’s Grandeur” I’ve known for years (Eugene Peterson, Lauren Wilkinson, and the Harris’ from A Rocha were always fond of quoting it), and a few others emerged for me as resonate favourites.
The last phrase of Inversaid was wonderful:
“What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
Oh let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.”
(Gerard Manley Hopkins, Inversaid)
May 8, 2018
Maybe I am just jaded in my old age, but I found the purported adoration of God in this poem to be rather lacking to the point of literally being in name only.
August 23, 2018
One of the most innovative Victorian poets and a personal favorite of mine. An antagonist of cliché with a highly rarefied sensibility--motivated above all by a love of Christ. Aesthetic experience is divine revelation in Hopkins. A magical poet that invites you to see the world afresh.
"The Wreck of the Deutschland"
Hopkins's longest poem--a narrative poem about the shipwreck of a German ship on its way to New York. Five German nuns die in the disaster, which Hopkins uses as an occasion to meditate on the glory of god, both destructive and creative.
"The Windhover"
In which the flight of a kestrel is figured in ecstatically visceral language.
"The Lantern Out of Doors"
A meditation on the ephemerality of human relations but on the permanence of man's relationship to god. About a man who spots a figure with a lantern at night and wonders where it's going. People come in and out of our life in a similar way; the poet feels sad for a moment and then remembers that god continues to follow all of us on our respective paths. Paris nicely with William Culen Bryant's "To a Waterfowl."
"Pied Beauty"
A celebration of irregularity and the unique properties that make things what they are.
"Binsey Poplars"
A lament for the chopping down of poplars, which contain a spirit and identity that, when gone, leave the land castrated & stripped of their "especial" presence.
"Inversnaid"
A celebration of "wetness and wildness"--the untamable and idiosyncratic inscape of Scottish streams, tress, and dialects.
"The Wreck of the Deutschland"
Hopkins's longest poem--a narrative poem about the shipwreck of a German ship on its way to New York. Five German nuns die in the disaster, which Hopkins uses as an occasion to meditate on the glory of god, both destructive and creative.
"The Windhover"
In which the flight of a kestrel is figured in ecstatically visceral language.
"The Lantern Out of Doors"
A meditation on the ephemerality of human relations but on the permanence of man's relationship to god. About a man who spots a figure with a lantern at night and wonders where it's going. People come in and out of our life in a similar way; the poet feels sad for a moment and then remembers that god continues to follow all of us on our respective paths. Paris nicely with William Culen Bryant's "To a Waterfowl."
"Pied Beauty"
A celebration of irregularity and the unique properties that make things what they are.
"Binsey Poplars"
A lament for the chopping down of poplars, which contain a spirit and identity that, when gone, leave the land castrated & stripped of their "especial" presence.
"Inversnaid"
A celebration of "wetness and wildness"--the untamable and idiosyncratic inscape of Scottish streams, tress, and dialects.
January 18, 2022
I have to admit being somewhat baffled with Hopkins' poetry, rich though it is in a beautifully musical language. Like the work of the seventeenth-century metaphysical poets that preceded him, Hopkins' verse is often laden with religious references and symbols that are mostly foreign to me. On the other hand, a non-religious poem like "Inversnaid" sings with lush alliteration that I can really appreciate. Certainly a poet worth re-visiting, but on first blush his work is just a bit too impenetrable for my taste.
November 23, 2016
I think it was Reggie Ray who first referred to Gerard Manley Hopkins, in a class conversation we were having; if I remember correctly, Hopkins is one of his favorite poets. Hopkins' work is replete with an untension between Ignatian asceticism and an appreciation of the sensory world as the divine Creation, a somewhat tantric attitude that probably resonated with Reggie's own experiences with Vajrayana Buddhism.
In any event, this $1 reprint edition of an early 20th century collection from Dover does an excellent job of allowing Hopkins' poetry to speak for itself. The sometimes archaic and complex phrasings remind me of a bit of Milton, while the assonance, alliteration, neologisms, and other wordplay are more reminiscent of 20th century writers like Joyce. One thing about the better poems in this collection that challenged me, always pleasantly, is what Hopkins called his "sprung rhythm," There is a more articulate and erudite explanation of this metrical convention and rhyme scheme in the author's introduction, but this form of rhythm is basically where the end of one line rhymes with the middle, rather than the end, of a subsequent line. I want to read an annotated version of these poems to get deeper into their meaning, and I also want to get a stronger sense of sprung rhythm for my own poetry and writing.
In any event, this $1 reprint edition of an early 20th century collection from Dover does an excellent job of allowing Hopkins' poetry to speak for itself. The sometimes archaic and complex phrasings remind me of a bit of Milton, while the assonance, alliteration, neologisms, and other wordplay are more reminiscent of 20th century writers like Joyce. One thing about the better poems in this collection that challenged me, always pleasantly, is what Hopkins called his "sprung rhythm," There is a more articulate and erudite explanation of this metrical convention and rhyme scheme in the author's introduction, but this form of rhythm is basically where the end of one line rhymes with the middle, rather than the end, of a subsequent line. I want to read an annotated version of these poems to get deeper into their meaning, and I also want to get a stronger sense of sprung rhythm for my own poetry and writing.
December 22, 2020
Hopkins is properly awed by the beauty of God and of the world God has made, and he eloquently invites his readers to be awed alongside him. I was blessed by this short collection, especially the poem for which the volume is named:
“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.”
—“God’s Grandeur,” G.M. 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.”
—“God’s Grandeur,” G.M. Hopkins
October 16, 2009
I'm actually not reading these poems from a book, but rather am listening to them on spoken word audio by a very able reciter, Walter Eagles, at his web site.
I am halfway through 32 of the poems, and already I am in awe of this man's gift. He praises God like a modern Asaph. The subtlety and power of his craft makes the praise all the more glorious.
I'm going to have to listen to many of these at least 10 times to fully enter into Hopkins' language and passion. This work really requires great focus.
The benefit of such hard work would spread to all of my other reading. If I can learn to appropriate what is said here, I should be able to listen to even journalistic prose with a much better ear.
I am halfway through 32 of the poems, and already I am in awe of this man's gift. He praises God like a modern Asaph. The subtlety and power of his craft makes the praise all the more glorious.
I'm going to have to listen to many of these at least 10 times to fully enter into Hopkins' language and passion. This work really requires great focus.
The benefit of such hard work would spread to all of my other reading. If I can learn to appropriate what is said here, I should be able to listen to even journalistic prose with a much better ear.
December 6, 2009
I got a hardcover of Hopkins, and I have one of those Christmas give-something-old-of-yours away things coming up, so I thought I'd give this one away. So, I read through it again. It rocks so good. Hopkins rocks so good. He's hard to understand at first glance, but after getting more familiar with the way he phrases things, he blows you away. A lot of his poems are just magnificent. Plus, (and I've noticed this with only a couple of other authors, one of them being Shakespeare) after reading him for an extended period, you start thinking in his sort of diction,
meaning, seeming, seeming to mean a rhythm,
a sprung one, a system of meaning in rhyme.
Or something like that.
meaning, seeming, seeming to mean a rhythm,
a sprung one, a system of meaning in rhyme.
Or something like that.
April 29, 2025
3/5 Stars (%58/100)
Gerard Manley Hopkins’s God’s Grandeur and Other Poems is a striking blend of religious fervor, experimental language, and rhythmic innovation. His use of “sprung rhythm” and intense imagery imbues even simple natural scenes with spiritual weight and dynamic energy. While Hopkins's devotion and originality shine, the dense, often opaque style and theological focus may create distance for some readers, making the collection more admirable in craft than consistently accessible in feeling.
Gerard Manley Hopkins’s God’s Grandeur and Other Poems is a striking blend of religious fervor, experimental language, and rhythmic innovation. His use of “sprung rhythm” and intense imagery imbues even simple natural scenes with spiritual weight and dynamic energy. While Hopkins's devotion and originality shine, the dense, often opaque style and theological focus may create distance for some readers, making the collection more admirable in craft than consistently accessible in feeling.
January 7, 2014
I really enjoy poetry...but this small volume was difficult for me. I did not like the language in it, the diction was off for me and the meter was odd. Some of the poems I liked a lot...others I just did not like at all. So I'm rating this book 3 stars because it was also my first introduction to Hopkins. I will keep this book and try it again
and may decide to give it a better rating the next time around.
and may decide to give it a better rating the next time around.
April 1, 2009
This is about the fourth time I have tried to read Gerald Manley Hopkins. I finally discovered in this bookette that what I do not like is his "distillation of English verse into the diction and alliterative pgh9onic values of Anglo-Saxon poetry".
Ok, so now that the problem is known, I will give him another try in to the future. The problem is me and a new form of poetry.
Hopkins and Chesterton are authors that I think I ought to appreicate. I don't know why.
Ok, so now that the problem is known, I will give him another try in to the future. The problem is me and a new form of poetry.
Hopkins and Chesterton are authors that I think I ought to appreicate. I don't know why.
March 1, 2016
Reading certain lines of his poems aloud does things to my tongue to which no other poet has subjected it. I swear I get a sprained mouth reading some of these lines! Hopkins' diction is earthy, robust, muscular, sometimes clumsy in the best sort of way--like dancing in heavy boots.
Want to read
April 27, 2016Key poems read so far--
The Wreck of the Deutchland--
The Silver Jubilee--
God's Grandeur--
The Starlight Night--
The Windhover--
Pied Beauty--
Hurrahing in Harvest--
The Caged Skylark--
Henry Purcell--
The Bugler's First Communion--
Andromeda--
Carrion Comfort--
The Wreck of the Deutchland--
The Silver Jubilee--
God's Grandeur--
The Starlight Night--
The Windhover--
Pied Beauty--
Hurrahing in Harvest--
The Caged Skylark--
Henry Purcell--
The Bugler's First Communion--
Andromeda--
Carrion Comfort--
January 26, 2008
The world is too much with us.....so we might as well read poetry! I have loved Hopkins' poetry since the 8th grade. Lovely, rich words.
June 10, 2009
God's Grandeur and Other Poems (Dover Thrift Editions) by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1995)
Read
June 1, 2016Read my review of this & other books at http://miscmss.blogspot.com/2016/06/q...
May 26, 2022
Gerard Manley Hopkins
God’s Grandeur – The world is charged with grandeur of God
God’s Grandeur – The world is charged with grandeur of God
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews