Matthew Henry John Bartlett

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Wednesday 03 March, 02004

Gerard Manley Hopkins/God’s Grandeur

by Matthew Bartlett @ 10:25 am

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?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs–
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

5 responses to “Gerard Manley Hopkins/God’s Grandeur”

  1. matt says:

    best thing about the Gravis shoes – the soles have these little nubbins through which I can feel the texture of whatever I’m walking on (sunshine).

  2. Anonymous says:

    nice re: post, and nice re: comment!

  3. k says:

    such well timed phrases

  4. One of my all-time favourite poems!

  5. matt says:

    Excellent – I forget who I heard quote it recently. Maybe Jeremy Begbie or someone else in a lecture off the net?

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