41 God’s Grandeur (1877/1918)

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889) was a nineteenth century Jesuit priest and poet. Hopkins was born into a High Church Anglican family on July 28, 1844. He was educated in literary studies, attending Highgate’s grammar school from 1854 to 1863, winning a poetry prize and a scholarship that paid for his studies at Balliol College at Oxford University from 1863 to 1867 (Everett). Religion remained a common topic of contemplation for Hopkins, and during his education, he was influenced by John Henry Newman, an ex-Anglican minister who converted to the Catholic faith. When Hopkins entered the Catholic Church in 1866, Newman administered the sacraments. Two years later, Hopkins joined the Jesuit order and after a decade in the Society of Jesus, he was ordained as a priest, which he remained until his death in 1889 (Everett).

After becoming a Jesuit, Hopkins struggled with the conflict between a Jesuit’s commitment to the “sacrifice of personal ambition” and the “self-indulgent” and “individualistic” nature of writing poetry (Everett). Upon joining the order, he destroyed his early works and refused to write poetry for several years; even so, he continued to contemplate his relationship with writing. His theological studies challenged his previous assumptions about the role of individuality in the world, and he eventually concluded that his religious convictions did not forbid his personal writing (Everett). By 1875, he was writing poetry again.

“God’s Grandeur” was written in 1877 and “Carrion Comfort” in 1885, but both remained unpublished during Hopkins’ lifetime. Almost three decades after Hopkins’ death, his friend and fellow poet Robert Bridges published his works in a 1918 anthology (Reid). This anthology lacked immediate success, and it was not “until 1930 [that] a second edition [was] issued, and thereafter Hopkins’ work was recognized as among the most original, powerful, and influential literary accomplishments of his century” (Reid).

“Carrion Comfort” is a grief poem that explores the speaker’s sadness. The speaker struggles with Despair, an anthropomorphized force looking to consume the speaker. However, the speaker resists actively indulging in his sadness, a choice synonymous with giving into Despair. As the octave continues, the speaker begins to question God about the reason for his suffering, a common biblical trope perhaps best exemplified in the character of Job. In the sestet, he shifts his questions towards himself as he begins to contemplate potential reasons for his suffering. Throughout the poem, the speaker wrestles to balance despair with hope and eventually takes comfort in the hope that he will outlive the depression of his current moment.

Inversely, “God’s Grandeur” is an admiration poem reflecting on the titular grandeur of God. In the poem, Hopkins presents God as a being who has control over and greater power than nature. Regardless, he represents God’s power through natural imagery, with an emphasis on fire, a common biblical symbol for God’s presence. At the same time, the speaker also uses fire imagery to show the harm that industrialization has inflicted on nature. Allusions to Moses at the burning bush—where God’s fiery presence consumes the plant without destroying it (Exod. 3:1-6)—contrast with the scorching effects of human industry. The speaker uses the vastness of nature to signify the smallness of man and at the end of the poem, hints towards the promise of divine creation in the face of human destruction.