What is the main theme of the poem God's grandeur | Heritage of words || Grade 12 | All questions Answer | Summary

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GOD'S GRANDEUR

                   By Gerard Manley Hopkins

Summary

The world is filled with the greatness of God. God' s glory expresses itself in two ways. Sometimes it flames out with sudden brightness when a gold foil is shaken. At other times, the poet thinks of an olive press, with the oil oozing from the pressed fruit. It oozes from every part of the press in a fine film and then the trickles gathers together to form a jar of oil. In the same way, the grandeur of God is found everywhere, tricking from every simple thing in a created universe and accumulating to form a greatness. The poet wonders why people do not care about God's rod. People pursue their worldly activities without any thought of God's will and without the fear of god's anger.

Generation of human beings have followed the same worldly path and have become so habitual to it that they don' t know its uselessness. It has become monotonous due to lack of the divine will. The world has been degraded and made ugly by commercial activity and by hard work aimed at worldly gains. The world bears the marks of man's dirt and gives out man's bad smell. The beauty of nature is spoiled by man's industrial activity and the sweet smell of nature has been drowned in the bad smell that comes from machines. The earth is now bare, having lost all living beauty. Man is insensitive to this bareness. Because of the Tahoe, he can't feel wherewith the earth is soft or hard.In spite of man' activities trending a destroyed the beauty of Nature. It is next inexhaustible. At the bottom of the world there is freshness. This freshness never disappears. When spring comes nature renews itself and thus shows underlying freshness. And although the sun goes down the western sky and the earth is plunged in darkness, the next day will dawn and the sun will be rising again in the estern sky. Just as a dove with its warm breast broods over its young ones in its nest, so the Holy Ghost broods protectively over the world which is bent in sleep and forgetfulness.

1. What does the poet say in first quatrain and in the second?

Ans: Generational of human beings have followed the same worldly path and have become so habitual to it that they don' t know its uselessness. It has become monotonous due to lack of the divine will. The world has been degraded and made ugly by commercial activity and by hard work aimed at worldly gains. The world bears the marks of man's dirt and gives out man's bad smell. The beauty of nature is spoiled by man's industrial activity and the sweet smell of nature has been drowned in the bad smell that comes from machines. The earth is now bare, having lost all living beauty. Man is insensitive to this bareness. Because of the Tahoe, he can't feel whether the earth is soft or hard.

2 . Summarie the last six lines in a sentence.

Ans:  The unending freshness of nature  renews itself by the grace of the spirit of God as the coming of the morning after nightfall.

3. What is the central idea of the poem?

Ans: This poem stressed the immanence of God. The whole universe is an expression of God's greatness, but man fail to recognise it. Though the soil is bare and smeared with man' s toil, " brood" over the world.

3. What do the seared, bleated, smeared suggest ?

Ans: " Seared" means 'dried up' or it can mean 'rendered incapable of feeling', 'Beard' means 'blurred with inflammation of the eyes' and 'smeared', mean 'rubbed over with dirt'. They suggest that there is a delicacy of feeling or perception in the world. The whole world has been degraded and made ugly by commercial activity and by toil aimed monetary gains.

4. What is the effect of the  repetition of the  words ' have trod' ? Have trod.

Ans: The repetition of the words ' have trod' captures the mechanical forces in verse because of their heavy accents. What is something called the ' daily grind' is a repetitive thump in which the feet of generation march on; and the ' trod' ....trod....trod' sets up the three beat rhythm of the next line: ' search.....bleated......smeared !