XII - God's Grandeur

God's Grandeur

Analysis

- Gerard Manley Hopkins

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God's Grandeur is composed by an English poet G.M. Hopkins who is regarded as the ardent follower of the almighty God. It is a sonnet similar to the religious song. In this poem, the poet sings the glory of god. He says that God is powerful and popular. The poem is based on the concept that god is kind enough to all human being and is always imparting love, compassion and protection despite the human being's rubbish behavior towards him. He says that God is omnipresent, omniscent and omnipotent and he is all loving, all inspiring and all forgiving to all earthly beings.

The poem is divided into two parts. In the first part, he explores the greatness of god. He says, that in this visible world, the existence of seen and unseen creatures or things are possible due to God's desire. Being the father of all, the God has filled this world with his greatness that has been enriching it. He compares the greatness of the god with shining brightness that comes from shaking of gold and the oozing of oil. He means a greatness of God is glittering like gold and being greater and greater like oozing of oil. He says though God is invisible, his greatness is found everywhere. But he wonders why the modern people are selfish not to care about god’s grace. He says those human beings are destroying the world doing different worldly activities running after the money. For centuries, they have been getting birth and dying without any care of God’s grace. They don’t feel the nature of soil because of shoes as they don’t realize the existence of that invisible power of god. They are pursuing the worldly activities without any thoughts of god’s will and without any fear of god’s anger. The world has been degraded day by day due to the hard work and the commercial activities of human beings that are purposed to gain the worldly things. The world bears the marks of human being’s dirt and gives out the bad smell of them. The world has lost all its natural beauty.

But the poet says though human beings respect him or not, the existence of god cannot be destroyed. He claims that the nature can never be spent. It is still fresh and is being freshened on and on by the grace of god. He wishes its freshness continue. He believes that due to the freshness that lies in its core, everything gets renewed. Similarly, once the sun sets in the west living the world dark behind. It again rises in the morning making it bright. Same like once the bird gives birth to the new babies, with new wings to live on this world and breed them with its warm love, we find the nature renewing itself time and again letting us enjoy it freely.

Central idea of the poem

The poem ‘God’s Grandeur’ composed by G.M. Hopkins is like a religious song dedicated to the God where the poet has sung the glory of God exhibiting various explanations and examples. He says that the God is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. The poet further explains that the existences of seen and unseen creatures or things are possible due to the God’s desire. He compares the greatness of the God with shining brightness that comes from shaking of gold and the oozing of oil. In the poem, the poet tells that being the father of all, the God has filled this world with his greatness that has been enriching it. He adds that the system of life runs on the desire of god. Today, human beings are slowly ignoring the grace of god. They are found totally dependent and running after the worldly things. They are busy working for their living. The modern advancement in the technological field has influenced the human life. The artificial matters are attracting the humans. The worldly things, the toil of humans and desire to live a modern life are taking humans away from the spiritual world due to which men are unaware of the greatness of god. Above all, the unsatisfactory nature of men towards their achievement and the continuous change in their destiny are making men unaware of the greatness of god.

Despite this fact, the poet adds that God is kind enough to all human beings and is always imparting love, compassion and protection. The god is all loving, all inspiring and all forgiving to all the earthly beings. Though humans respect him or not, the existence of god cannot be destroyed. The poet claims that nature can never be spent. It is still fresh and is being freshened on and on by the grace of god. The parental love and care is also the greatness of god. When a life ends, the other takes birth to fill the place and this process is continued as the glory of god. Thus, the glory of god is seen everywhere and every time throughout the never ending chain of life. 

XII - Grandmother

Grandmother 

- Ray Young Bear

Analysis

The poem “Grandmother” is composed by an American – Indian poet and novelist Ray Young Bear, who seems to have great respect and love towards his culture and traditions. He belongs to the Mesquaki tribe who are supposed to be the first dwellers of America. They are known as the red-indians and are facing many difficulties culturally and socially. After the discovery of the new world – America, their existence is in crisis. They find their culture is being replaced by the belated cultures of the whites. In the poem, the poet depicts the typical culture of Mesquaki tribe.

In this poem, the poet describes the problems of Mesquaki tribes by portraying the beautiful picture of his grandmother who is no more alive now. Here, the grandmother represents the culture, civilization and the value of his community. The poem is just a way to remember and explore the typical features of his tribe. It is about the poet’s sincere love and attitude towards his parent culture. At simple level, it seems that the poet is describing his grandmother who is different from the other race of women in the world. But at deeper level, he is exploring and searching the identity of Mesquaki tribe. In the last lines of poem, by using the dark works like ashes, sleeping fire, night and using ‘i’, the poet shows that the red Indian culture is being quite invisible and unimportant due to the introduction of new culture.

The poem has its special quality since it appeals our sense organs. Here, the poet draws a picture of his grandmother using words. He says that he could recognize his grandmother from a long distance looking jus a shape and her purple scarf and plastic shopping bag, which she used to wear and carry. Here, purple scarf and plastic shopping bag suggest their way of life i.e. culture. Talking about his deep attachment and close relationship towards his grandmother, he says that he could identify his grandmother’s hands which were warm and damp. Here, warm and damp suggest his love and affection towards his grandmother i.e. his culture. Same like the way he could recognize the voice far away rock and the words that flow inside him like the light of someone stirring ashes from a sleeping fire. Here, the poet seems quite pessimistic during dark words. The sleeping fire indicates that the memory of his grandmother is being quite dim. In other word, it means everything is in confusion. His tribe, his culture and people are in confusion either to follow their old culture or to enter the new culture that is totally guided by modernization. 

Theme of the poem

The poem “grandmother” composed by Ray Young Bear draws a picture of his grandmother at surface level, but has symbolized his Mesquaki tribe and its culture at deeper level. The poet has described the appearance of his grandmother as the culture of his tribe. Using the various senses like seeing, feeling, hearing and smelling, the poet has pointed out various facts of his tribe. However, the poet expresses his sorrow regarding the cultures of Mesquaki tribe that are in the verge of extinction due to the immigrating cultures and modernization in America. Moreover, the poet has expressed the love and devotion towards his Mesquaki cultures and has focused on searching and conversing his and his tribe’s true identity.