God’s Grandeur --- Hopkins

1. What type of sonnet is “God’s Grandeur”? How do you know?

2. Explain the title – what does it mean? What does it suggest that the poem might be about?

3. Consider and discuss the significance of the following words and phrases, in context:

1. Charged2. Foil3. Ooze of oil, crushed4. Reck his rod5. Spent6. Deep down things7. Springs8. Bent

4. What has humankind done to this earth?

5. What does nature always do, despite humankind?

6. What gives nature its power?7. Explain the metaphor in the last two

lines.8. Write a possible theme statement for

this poem.

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;        5  

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;        10

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.

9. What failure does Hopkins charge common human beings with? What do they fail to perceive in nature?10..How does this poem assert the capacity of poetic language to celebrate God? What does the poet's description of nature have to do with his determination to praise God?

4. What has humankind done to this earth?

5. What does nature always do, despite humankind?

6. What gives nature its power?

7. Explain the metaphor in the last two lines.

8. Write a possible theme statement for this poem.

Closing Thoughts on “God’s Grandeur”

1.What failure does Hopkins charge common human beings with? What do they fail to perceive in nature?

2.How does this poem assert the capacity of poetic language to celebrate God? What does the poet's description of nature have to do with his determination to praise God?

“Dover Beach”1. What is the dominant mood of

stanza one? What creates this mood?

2. Where in the stanza does the mood begin to change? By the time we reach stanza two, what has happened to the mood? Refer to the poem to support your answer.

3. Discuss in a small group what you think Arnold believes about the power of love. Refer to the poem to support your answer.

4. In stanza two, the poet alludes to Sophocles, a write of Greek tragedies. Why does he compare himself to a writer of tragedies? How does this contribute to your understanding?

5. What are the three seas referred to in this poem? How is the metaphorical sea in stanza three connected to the seas described in stanzas one & two?

6. Note specific examples of how the sounds of words & line lengths recreate the movement of the seas. Explain how the movement of the waves reflects the movement of the narrator’s emotions.

7. Trace the references to light in the poem. What does it represent? When is the darkness introduced? Why?