God Grandeur

God Grandeur

The closing sentences “because the Holy Ghost over the bent world broods with warm breast and with ah! Bright wings” are the right ending sentences of this sonnet because it wittily sums up the whole argument derived from the contents of this poem. These lines also reflect the beginning of the poem by showing how God’s presence never leaves humanity despite the world’s wicked ways. This ability of the ending lines to sum up the contents and reflect the critical point that the poet is trying to put across makes them suitable closing remarks of this sonnet. This essay examines how the closing lines sum up the contents and reflect on the opening statement.

In the opening lines 2-3, the poet uses “flame out, like shining from shook foil” to explain the type of brightness that God’s grandeur reflects the world. This symbolic imagery enhances vivid imagery of muscular force, power, or electric surge that sends out a brilliant array of light and shines over other objects making it light up with magnificence. The poet tries to figure out what would give such a view and settles on a gold-foil shaken against a bright array of light so that it sends out full glares similar to those of lighting on a vast skyscape. The scene that this figurative language creates is identical to that in Exodus, where God appears unto mosses in the form of a burning bush. The poet continues to magnify God’s grandeur by using the following words “increasing in greatness, like the ooze of oil, crushed!“. This sentence symbolically refers to the valuable olive oil that is only obtained from crushing whole olives. In other words, the poet is talking about Christ’s cleansing blood and water that oozed from his side when he was crucified on the cross to serve his purpose of spreading God’s love for humanity and bringing salvation to humankind (John 19:34). This salvation is a valuable olive oil that comes from crushed olives.

In line 4, the author says, that why do men “then now” not reck his rod. This statement is contradictory and hard to understand. However, by examining the meaning, the poet is asking why it is difficult for human beings to see God’s sacrifices to salvage humanity from its wrongdoings. The poet is in disbelief that even after God sacrificed his son Jesus Christ (the olive oil), humanity still does not see the magnitude of this sacrifice. The poet is wondering why men do not know what God has done. This sentence changes the tone from exciting to sad mood, which brings a transformation from the splendor and magnificence seen in the first sentences to the wrongdoings and burden of turmoil men bring upon themselves. The only way the author can communicate these strong emotions is through the use of literal devices. The poet has used consonance, alliteration, and assonance in lines 5-7. Assonance is the repetition of vowels in a line e.g., sound /ea./ in “…all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil” and sound /o/ in “Generations have trod, have trod, have trod.” Consonance is the repetition of consonant sound e.g.,/d/ in “world broods with warm breast and…”. These are devices used to present the poet’s feelings, emotions, and ideas.

In line 8, the poet examines why men do not see God’s doings. He uses the statement “the soil Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.” Shod in the past participle of the shoe. Thus, the poet is saying that man has shoes on and therefore, cannot feel the bear soil beneath his feet. The shoes signify human’s greed for riches that deny him an opportunity to experience God’s Grace. Thus, man dismisses God’s presence and continue with his wicked ways such that the ground is no longer fruitful. This imagery is an equivalent of the parable of the sower in the bible (Matthew 13:1-23).

In lines 11 through 14, the poet is talking about God’s eternal (everlasting) grace upon human beings. The “last lights” refers to dusk hours after the sun has set, God unveils new dawn for human beings despite their wicked actions. He serves humanity with the gift of life and shines over the earth and all things in it with the same undying splendor in line one of the poems. Springs are sources of water around the globe, and water is life. In other words, God will replenish man’s sources of life. This declaration connects us to the ending lines 13 and 14. In line 13, bent means crooked, which signifies the wicked world. Holy Ghost Brooding the sinful world refers to God incubating man and using his grace as wings to protect humankind from evil. This grace and God’s love for humanity reflect the splendor of God shining over the world at the beginning of the poem. Thus, as seen throughout this analysis, the poet has used literal devices, sonnet’s structure in planning flow of logic, and these ending lines to sum up all the contents of the poem and remind the audience of the critical overarching argument at the beginning of the poem. For these reasons, this ending is the right one for this sonnet.