God’s Grandeur Analysis

Welcome to the land of symbols, imagery, and wordplay. Before you travel any further, please know that there may be some thorny academic terminology ahead. Never fear, Shmoop is here. Check out our...

Italian Sonnet, Sprung RhythmGod’s Grandeur follows the basic form of an Italian sonnet. An Italian sonnet has fourteen lines, eight in the first section (called the "octave"), and six lines...

Our speaker is anonymous and genderless, and talks like no one else. He or she seems to be in deep turmoil. On the one hand, the speaker is conflicted over how the world could be so "bent" and brok...

The physical setting of "God’s Grandeur" is our planet, Earth. Though the poem was written in 1877, the images are easily transferable to today.In the poem, the earth has a problem. Humans, i...

This poem has a fresh, breathy sound to it, like rain in a field of flowers. When we hear "shook foil," thunder cracks in the background. We also hear the echo of big machines, grinding and whirrin...

The title tells us what the poem plans to do: illustrate the speaker’s vision of a quality of God, namely "grandeur." Grandeur is the quality of being "grand," which means "big," "fancy," "wo...

Sprung RhythmYou can’t real talk about Hopkins without talking about "sprung rhythm," the name Hopkins gives to the rhythm he uses in his poetry. Instead of alternating stressed and unstresse...

(7) SnowlineLanguage is used in exciting and unusual ways in "God’s Grandeur." Even a quick read will leave most readers refreshed and opened by the freshness of the verse. Almost every word...

Did you know there is a Hopkins Literary Festival? (Source)Hopkins also knew how to draw. (His sister taught him.) (Source)

PGIf there is sex in this poem, it isn’t obvious. In fact, sex doesn’t seem to enter the picture at all in “God’s Grandeur.” But wait, maybe it does. In the biography...