Discussion Topic

Poetic and figurative devices used in "God's Grandeur"

Summary:

In "God's Grandeur," Gerard Manley Hopkins uses various poetic and figurative devices, including alliteration, assonance, and imagery. Alliteration appears in phrases like "grandeur of God," while assonance is evident in "shining from shook foil." Vivid imagery is used to depict nature and divine presence, such as "the world is charged with the grandeur of God." These devices enhance the poem's emotional and visual impact.

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What are some poetic devices used in "God's Grandeur"?

“God’s Grandeur” (1877) is packed to the seams with literary and poetic devices, but there are two kinds of techniques into which I’ll delve in particular. The first of these has to do with inventions in form. As you may know, Gerard Manley Hopkins was known for his experiments with poetic meter. Though “God’s Grandeur,” is a Shakespearian sonnet—a 14-line poem in iambic pentameter—Hopkins often deviates from the beat, as we see in the following example:

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? (lines 1–4)

In an iamb, the syllable sounds occur in a characteristic heartbeat pattern, with a short syllable followed by a longer syllable, such as in the phrase “the WORLD” (Capitalization added for emphasis). A line...

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in which this beat or metrical foot repeats five times is said to follow an iambic pentameter. If we look at the poem’s first stanza above, Hopkins breaks from the iambic pentameter twice.

In the expression “SHOOK FOIL” in the second line, two stressed syllables follow each other. This is an instance of a spondaic beat and it shakes the lulling iambic pattern, adding a surprising note of freshness, much like the flash of light which bounces off a shook foil.

Similarly, the third line stretches into a twelve-syllabic hexameter, as if to mime the very “ooze of oil” it speaks about. Further, the line spills over into the fourth and ends abruptly with the word “crushed,” which is an example of yet another literary device, the enjambment.

The cascading effect of the varying beats, meters, and stops is that the poem manages to startle and awe, despite its formal structure. In this it mimics its subject, which is the grandeur of nature and god, full of patterns and disruptions. The breaks in rhyme also represent what Hopkins himself called “sprung rhythm,” which is a rhythm freed or sprung from constricting form. In his innovations with rhyme, Hopkins heavily influenced modern poets such as T. S. Eliot and Dylan Thomas.

The second characteristic innovation we see in the poem is Hopkins’ experiments with sound. Hopkins meant his poems to be read aloud, and crafted sound effects that illustrated his poetic themes. In “God’s Grandeur,” not only do we see several examples of alliteration (“shining from shook foil,” "reck his rod," “foot feel”) and assonance (“seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil”), but also of onomatopoeia and anaphora. Onomatopoeic words like “ooze” replicate the movement of the oil, while “trod” mimics heavy footfall. The anaphora or repetition occurs in the line:

Generations have trod, have trod, have trod (line 6)

Again, the effect the anaphora creates is of earth ground down by the footprints and industry of men, which is in sharp contrast to nature’s refreshing, regenerating influence. Thus, the poem's stark rises and falls embody nature's fight to overcome man's colonization of earth.

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The world is charged with the grandeur of God.

Metaphor -The working of God's power in his creation is likened to an enormous electrical charge. This is no mere abstraction; it courses through the world in which we live, the air that we breathe, and the ground on which we walk.

It will flame out, like shining from shook foil.

Simile -Hopkins shows us how this charge will spread through God's creation, energizing it.

It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil/Crushed.

Simile again, but also Alliteration - Hopkins repeats the 'g' sound of the title and opening line.

Why do men then now not reck his rod?

As well as alliteration again, we also have a rhetorical question—"Reck" means "recognize," or "acknowledge"; "Rod" refers to God's divine authority. Hopkins wants to know why so many of us don't look around and acknowledge the kinetic power and presence of God in our world, why we don't honor Him in His creation. As with all rhetorical questions, it forces us to ask something of ourselves.

Generations have trod, have trod, have trod.

Repetition - This emphasizes the long, slow passing of time. And also Assonance, using the 'o' vowel to slow down the rhythm to an appropriate level.

 And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell . . . 

Consonance -The repetition of the 'm' consonant expresses the mark that successive generations of men have had upon the soil.

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent 
    World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
There is alliteration aplenty here as Hopkins ends the poem. As well as the strong insistence of the "b" sound, we have the delightful whisper of the "w" beautifully conveying the hushed sense of awe that Hopkins wants us to feel towards the rising sun shedding light once more upon the grandeur of God's creation.
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What is the main figurative device used in "God's Grandeur?"

In "God's Grandeur," Hopkins uses many figurative devices, but the one repeated most often is alliteration. Alliteration means using words that begin with the same consonant more than once in a line to create a rhythmic effect. It is a technique more associated with Old English and Middle English writing than with nineteenth-century poetry, in which rhyming dominated. But Hopkins uses alliteration abundantly. In the poem's second line, we read "flame" and "foil," "shining" and "shook." In line three, we note that "gathers" and greatness" are alliterative, as are "reck" and "rod" in line four. Almost every line in the poem is alliterative.   This dense piling of alliteration (and assonance, which is the same technique, only using words beginning with vowels) grows more and more intense as the poem proceeds, rising to a crescendo in stanza two to reflect the poet's rising emotions. In the last line, we experience two sets of three alliterations each: world, warm and wings, and broods, breast and bright. This density mirrors the way in which the holy spirit, in the poet's imagination, surrounds, protects and envelopes the world. As Hopkins expresses it:  
    ... the Holy Ghost over the bent
    World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
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