Religion and Poetry

Hopkins is an interesting writer, because I figured I'd see him in one of my Christianity classes but never have. His confusion about his relationship with God over the years, as well as his estrangment from the same is typical for liturgical writers. Most at some point feel as though religion has lost all meaning and attempt to give up in one way or another. He has described his life as a burden to him, because of the removal from those things he loved, namely family and the English church. He wrote in his sonnet that he was removed (773). His pieces remind me of that of the early prophets. The early prophets were often misunderstood in their own time periods and even persecuted for their beliefs. The prophets often exhorted God just as Hopkins does in the first line of his poem. "The world is charged with the grandeur of God" (774). Suggesting the idea that God reigns over all and that his prescence electrifyes the world. Then just as the prophets exalt God they then start on the meat of the message usually being repentence. Hopkins asks the question of his audience "Why do men then now not reck his rod?" This expresses his prophetic voice to cause the people to remember their faith even though his may have been failing in the very same moment. He then takes the reader on a history lesson showing them that God has since been faithful and that his people have had some hard times. With his Biblical background I'm not surprised by his take on the situation.