Post 1: A Comparison of Poetry

This blog will be dedicated to English Literature.  It is a book club of sorts, a book club of the digital era, as well as a journal of my thoughts as I critique books and poetry that I read.

Today I will simply post a comparison paper that I had written in my Romantic-Modern Literature course.  The paper compares Wordsworth’s “The world is too much with us” and Hopkins’ “God’s Grandeur.” I have attached the two poems at the bottom for reference.

When reading Wordsworth’s “the world is too much with us,” and Hopkins’ “God’s grandeur,” one can’t but help feel their Victorian poems’ striking similarities and manage to find some differences in their style as well. Using sensory imagery, rhyme, and other poetic devices the poets convey their sonnets’ messages of longing for nature among other things in a changing world.

In “The world is too much with us” and in “God’s Grandeur” we find the same rhyme scheme of “A-B-B-A.” Both poems are also sonnets in which the first 8 lines, or the octet, demonstrates the exposition in which they introduce their thoughts and describe the setting; the last 6 lines, or the sextet, embodies the meaning or their commentary of their poem. However the reader notes that in Wordsworth’s poem there is no use of repetition, little alliteration, and use of allusion to Greek mythology. His allusion to Greek mythology keys the reader into the meaning of the poem and significance. Wordsworth also uses random capitalization to stress certain words such as “nature” (line 3) and “sea” (line 5). In “God’s Grandeur” we are subject to alliteration, repetition, and enjambment, as well as rhetorical question. The use of repetition adds to the flow of the poem, which is iambic pentameter alike Wordsworth’s poem, as well as drawing the reader’s attention to what is repeated such as, “have trod, have trod, have trod” (line 5), which stresses his feelings toward how humanity has treated nature in his changing industrial world. Enjambment also has the same effect and purpose as the alliteration and repetition. The utilization of the rhetorical question adds to this and makes his audience a participative listener or reader by making them think on the matter in more depth and also by highlighting the poems purpose. Overall both poems are iambic pentameter sonnets that use some same poetic devices and structure, yet each adds their own style with some differing literary techniques.

Imagery is very powerful in literature, and these two poems are certainly no exception.  Both poems use beautiful words and pleasant visual imagery and descriptive words such as in Wordsworth’s poem “pleasant” (line 11), “sleeping flowers” (line 7), and “wreathed horn” (line 14), as well as in Hopkins’ poem, “dearest freshness” (line 10), and “bright wings” (line 14). The beautiful imagery in both poems describe the nature and peace. Both poems also use darker and more harsh imagery however. In “The world is too much with us,” we see words such as “sordid boon” (line 4), “forlorn” (line 12), and “getting and spending” (line 2). Hopkins’ poem also does this by using words such as “trod” (line 5), “and all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil” (line 6), and “man’s smell” (line 7). The harsh and unpleasant imagery used shows the distaste both poets feel towards mankind’s alterations on natures’ beauty.

The overall meaning in both poems are similar yet vary slightly. Both long for nature and show the aesthetics of nature and a distaste for the change, which echo the message of the romantic era of poetry, yet Wordsworth’s poem calls out to God in line 9 or a higher power, then alludes to Greek Mythology in yearning to be a “Pagan” that worships the gods that each represent nature as “Proteus” from the”Sea” . Wordsworth also says that humanity is “out of tune” (line 8 ) and that “we have given our hearts away” (line 4) and don’t appreciate the surrounding nature. His poem in tone, seems to be a cry to a higher power, and almost seems as though there is no hope for what humanity does to nature. However in “God’s Grandeur” Hopkins seems to say that there is hope and that “nature is never spent” (line 9). He believes that Gods’ power is still strong and nature cant be bent. In the end, both poems communicate their message through their styles, imagery, and meaning. this longing for nature epitomizes the theme of the poem and culminates their feelings.

The world is too much with us

by Wordsworth

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
the winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not. - - Great God! I'd rather be
a Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.
God’s Grandeur

By Hopkins

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.


Next post I will share my thoughts on the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  I promise it will not be from a paper I’ve written for a class.

Thanks for reading through this and let me know what you think! Share this if you found it interesting please! Thank you!

~ LitGirl

P.S. I tried to keep the essay short for two reasons: 1) time constraints (this was a timed essay done in class) and 2) I could write forever about these two poems as there is so much to say about them!