Poetry & Analysis
Selected Poems
Inspirational PoemsGod's Grandeur
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.
Overview Short Summary
Hopkins’ poem explores greatness at a spiritual and natural scale. The world is damaged by human toil and trade, but a deep freshness still remains.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Spiritual greatness: The world is charged with divine grandeur.
- Renewal: Nature is never spent despite human damage.
- Hope: Morning still springs after the black West loses light.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is intense, reverent, and hopeful. The mood is charged because beauty and damage exist together.
Literary Technique Imagery and Symbols
Shook foil, oil, trade-smudged soil, deep freshness, morning, and bright wings create a powerful image of enduring greatness.
Poetic Form Rhyme Scheme and Structure
The sonnet contrasts human damage with divine renewal.
Pied Beauty
Glory be to God for dappled things—
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.
Overview Short Summary
Hopkins’ poem celebrates greatness in variety, imperfection, contrast, and small details. It is useful for inner greatness because it praises what is original, spare, strange, and different.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Greatness in difference: The poem praises dappled, counter, original, and strange things.
- Beauty: Greatness appears in small details as well as grand scenes.
- Praise: The changing world points toward beauty past change.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is joyful, compact, and worshipful. The mood is bright because difference becomes a reason for praise.
Literary Technique Imagery and Symbols
Dappled skies, trout, chestnuts, finches, landscapes, trades, and contrasting qualities create a world of patterned beauty.
Poetic Form Rhyme Scheme and Structure
The curtal sonnet form gives the poem a compressed, energetic shape.
On Virtue
O thou bright jewel in my aim I strive
To comprehend thee. Thine own words declare
Wisdom is higher than a fool can reach.
I cease to wonder, and no more attempt
Thine height t’ explore, or fathom thy profound.
But, O my soul, sink not into despair,
Virtue is near thee, and with gentle hand
Would now embrace thee, hovers o’er thine head.
Fain would the heaven-born soul with her converse,
Then seek, then court her for her promised bliss.
Auspicious queen, thine heavenly pinions spread,
And lead celestial Chastity along;
Lo! now her sacred retinue descends,
Arrayed in glory from the orbs above.
Attend me, Virtue, thro’ my youthful years!
O leave me not to the false joys of time!
But guide my steps to endless life and bliss.
Overview Short Summary
Wheatley’s poem connects greatness with virtue, wisdom, discipline, and the desire to be guided away from false joys. It gives greatness a moral and spiritual direction.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Moral greatness: Virtue is treated as a bright jewel and guiding presence.
- Wisdom: The poem admits that virtue is higher than easy understanding.
- Self-improvement: The speaker asks Virtue to guide her steps.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is reverent, aspirational, and humble. The mood is elevated because virtue becomes a queenly guide.
Literary Technique Imagery and Symbols
Jewel, heavenly pinions, sacred retinue, glory, false joys, and endless bliss symbolize moral aspiration.
Poetic Form Rhyme Scheme and Structure
The poem’s prayer-like structure makes greatness feel like a lifelong pursuit.
On Imagination
Thy various works, imperial queen, we see,
How bright their forms! how deck’d with pomp by thee!
Thy wond’rous acts in beauteous order stand,
And all attest how potent is thine hand.
From Helicon’s refulgent heights attend,
Ye sacred choir, and my attempts befriend:
To tell her glories with a faithful tongue,
Ye blooming graces, triumph in my song.
Now here, now there, the roving Fancy flies,
Till some loved object strikes her wand’ring eyes,
Whose silken fetters all the senses bind,
And soft captivity involves the mind.
Imagination! who can sing thy force?
Or who describe the swiftness of thy course?
Soaring through air to find the bright abode,
Th’ empyreal palace of the thund’ring God,
We on thy pinions can surpass the wind,
And leave the rolling universe behind:
From star to star the mental optics rove,
Measure the skies, and range the realms above.
There in one view we grasp the mighty whole,
Or with new worlds amaze th’ unbounded soul.
Though Winter frowns to Fancy’s raptured eyes
The fields may flourish, and gay scenes arise;
The frozen deeps may break their iron bands,
And bid their waters murmur o’er the sands.
Fair Flora may resume her fragrant reign,
And with her flow’ry riches deck the plain;
Sylvanus may diffuse his honours round,
And all the forest may with leaves be crowned:
Showers may descend, and dews their gems disclose,
And nectar sparkle on the blooming rose.
Such is thy power, nor are thine orders vain,
O thou the leader of the mental train:
In full perfection all thy works are wrought,
And thine the sceptre o’er the realms of thought.
Before thy throne the subject-passions bow,
Of subject-passions sovereign ruler thou;
At thy command joy rushes on the heart,
And through the glowing veins the spirits dart.
Fancy might now her silken pinions try
To rise from earth, and sweep th’ expanse on high;
From Tithon’s bed now might Aurora rise,
Her cheeks all glowing with celestial dyes,
While a pure stream of light o’erflows the skies.
The monarch of the day I might behold,
And all the mountains tipt with radiant gold,
But I reluctant leave the pleasing views,
Which Fancy dresses to delight the Muse;
Winter austere forbids me to aspire,
And northern tempests damp the rising fire;
They chill the tides of Fancy’s flowing sea,
Cease then, my song, cease the unequal lay.
Overview Short Summary
Wheatley’s poem presents imagination as a great mental power. The mind can move beyond ordinary limits, range among stars, and grasp a mighty whole.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Greatness of mind: Imagination surpasses wind and leaves the rolling universe behind.
- Creative power: Fancy transforms winter into fields, flowers, dews, and roses.
- Ambition: The poem attempts to sing the force of imagination itself.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is elevated, ornate, and celebratory. The mood is expansive because the mind travels beyond ordinary limits.
Literary Technique Imagery and Symbols
Pinions, stars, skies, Flora, Aurora, mountains, and flowing seas symbolize imagination’s power to rise and transform.
Poetic Form Rhyme Scheme and Structure
The poem uses personification to turn Imagination into an imperial queen.
Columbus
Behind him lay the gray Azores,
Behind the Gates of Hercules;
Before him not the ghost of shores;
Before him only shoreless seas.
The good mate said: “Now must we pray,
For lo! the very stars are gone.
Brave Admiral, speak; what shall I say?”
“Why, say: ‘Sail on! sail on! and on!'”
“My men grow mutinous day by day;
My men grow ghastly wan and weak.”
The stout mate thought of home; a spray
Of salt wave washed his swarthy cheek.
“What shall I say, brave Admiral, say,
If we sight naught but seas at dawn?”
“Why, you shall say at break of day:
‘Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!'”
They sailed and sailed, as winds might blow,
Until at last the blanched mate said:
“Why, now not even God would know
Should I and all my men fall dead.
These very winds forget their way,
For God from these dread seas is gone.
Now speak, brave Admiral; speak and say”—
He said: “Sail on! sail on! and on!”
They sailed. They sailed. Then spake the mate:
“This mad sea shows his teeth to-night.
He curls his lip, he lies in wait,
With lifted teeth, as if to bite!
Brave Admiral, say but one good word:
What shall we do when hope is gone?”
The words leaped like a leaping sword:
“Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!”
Then, pale and worn, he kept his deck,
And peered through darkness. Ah, that night
Of all dark nights! And then a speck—
A light! A light! A light! A light!
It grew, a starlit flag unfurled!
It grew to be Time’s burst of dawn.
He gained a world; he gave that world
Its grandest lesson: “On! sail on!”
Overview Short Summary
Miller’s poem presents greatness as endurance when fear, mutiny, darkness, and uncertainty surround the journey. The repeated command “Sail on” becomes a lesson in persistence.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Greatness through struggle: The voyage continues when hope seems gone.
- Leadership: The admiral gives courage to fearful companions.
- Perseverance: The final discovery comes after repeated darkness.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is dramatic, urgent, and motivational. The mood is tense but triumphant.
Literary Technique Imagery and Symbols
Shoreless seas, vanished stars, mad sea, darkness, light, and dawn symbolize the passage from uncertainty to discovery.
Poetic Form Rhyme Scheme and Structure
The repeated “Sail on!” refrain gives the poem its driving force.
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