Introduction of "God's Grandeur"

When you hear the word “nature”, does any image recall an experience or moment in your life? If you’re like me, you probably thought of an image where the world seemed at peace for a brief moment. I automatically think of the time when I went to Tahoe to learn how to ski last weekend. I was left breathless when I saw the white snow that covered the mountaintops and slopes along the mountainsides. I could not help but constantly think how gorgeous the scenery was and how the snow sparkled in the sunlight. Since I am use to the chaotic grey city life, I do not see snow as frequently as I did that weekend. However, with all the beauty that surrounded me, I constantly saw machines, lifts, hotels and cars populate the new world that I was becoming accustomed to. Somehow, the beauty that nature contained was smothered in the ways we, citizens, entertain ourselves with the help of the advancements in our world.

With all the good visions we think of when we hear an abstract word like nature, no one thinks about the dark experiences that nature goes through, such as forest fires, pollution, or the extinction of animal species throughout the passing years. In the poem “God’s Grandeur”, the author, Gerard Manley Hopkins, reveals the good and bad images that nature has claimed as part of its own existence. Even though the good and bad images create two different feelings, one of dread and fear while the other contains the feeling of fulfillment, they need each other to coexist.

The coexistence I just mentioned appears in the various images in the first and second stanza. The first stanza, which represents nature being neglected, contains colors of dark grayness by the use of “oil” (3) and fire. The second stanza is given reassurance through the presence of the Holy Ghost (13) and an angel (14). Usually the coexistence of two extremes, for example world peace and terrorism, is questioned by the intention of a higher power, which in this case is God.