God’s Grandeur T-Analysis
Caroline Raines
Details
Charged
Analysis
Interesting word choice. It means that the world is alive with the
“Grandeur of God.” To be charged implies that the world is
totally and completely accepting of God and His creations on
earth.
It will flame out
“It” refers to the grandeur of God. “Flame out” is a nice
connection back to “charged” which hints that God’s grandeur is
as great or even greater than fire. Once people forget God, or lose
interest in God, His “flame” and His glory will be lost.
Shook foil
When you shake foil in the sunlight, it glints and glows, but only
as long as you shake it. When you stop shaking the foil, then
there is no brilliance to it any longer, but it is just plain old foil.
Interesting that he would relate God to “foil,” which seems very
uninteresting. Perhaps it is an implication that only the shaking
that comes from man’s excitement about God is what makes God
great.
Gathers to a greatness,
The ooze of oil can be a slow process. It might take a long time
like the ooze of oil.
for a lot of oil to gather into one spot, and if you let it gather for a
while, then it can become a great amount if you have patience.
Men on earth at one time were very excited about God and very
involved in the thought of God, and one by one, they made up a
great portion of the world’s population. It is suggesting that if
man were to gather together for God, then His grandeur would be
“great” and it would be ever flowing.
Crushed.
This is a very short sentence. It is cutting. It hurts. The grandeur
of God that was once “great” and “charged” is “crushed.” The
excitement for God and His earth is left behind, and there He is
abandoned. Everything that preceded this word was flowing and
happy, and now God is crushed and no one remembers His work.
Now not reck his rod
This is an example of alliteration. “now not” and “reck” and
“rod” almost make the sentence sound desperate. Why don’t men
remember God’s grandeur now? God wants everyone to know his
grandeur, and to listen to Him, and it is painful now that men
have decided to go their own way and disregard Him.
Have trod, have trod, have The repetition makes it sound hard and long and like an
trod
experience that wasn’t meant to be happy. The generations sound
bored. This gives the poem a feel of man’s unhappiness without
God’s grandeur. They have forgotten, and the world has gone
from being “charged” and alive, to being harsh and “trod” over
and over again.
Seared with trade;
These words create a feeling of having everything smoothed
bleared, smeared
together. Like all of the events in the world have nothing to do
with anything, and they will be forgotten because they really had
no importance. They were “smeared.” Without God, these words
give the world a feeling of unimportance and repetitive sliminess
that wouldn’t have existed if God were involved. With God the
world was crisp and “shining.”
Toil…soil
Again, the rhyming words give the feeling of depression. Toil and
soil aren’t something we long for in life.
All…wears man’s smudge “All” is referring to the earth in this case. It is also pointing out
and…smell
that you can’t escape the harsh realities of what man has done to
the earth without the consent of God. Man’s “smudge” and
“smell” are about the earth. When thinking of smudges and
smells, together you would assume something dirty or stinky. The
earth can’t any more be grand because it is rank with “man” and
his “smell.”
Nor can foot feel, being
This could be seen literally as someone having shoes on, and not
shod
being able to enjoy the feel of the earth on their feet. However, it
has a deeper meaning. The heart has been closed off from feeling.
Men don’t care any longer about the world or about God or even
about the “toil” or even the “generations” that have passed on,
because there is nothing to feel when your heart is closed and
your mind is shut off.
All this
All of the bad that has happened between when the world loved
God and when the world forgot God. It is a grand statement and it
opens the door into seeing just how long of a time that this was.
“All” is a large word for the mistakes that were made. “This”
seems a very broad term too for what has happened. It makes the
world feel like it won’t ever heal because the problems are too
broad.
Nature is never spent
Nature can’t be taken advantage of. This is because it is God’s.
The world, ultimately doesn’t belong to man, it belongs to God,
and nature can’t be spent in the sight of God.
Dearest freshness
“Dearest” gives a sense of love and compassion. “Freshness”
gives a bit of hope and of understanding. A clean slate to follow
on. And these two words put together help to understand that God
is compassionate, and He is forgiving, even after man has
“smeared” the earth.
Deep down things
This phrase gives a sense of greater understanding, and it comes
from God. It is the “deep down” things that matter. It isn’t the dirt
or the soil or the smell of the earth that matters, what matters is
that men turn back to God, and God knows that eventually they
will come to realize the greater purpose to life.
Black/Brown
The contrast in the colors at first doesn’t seem much different, but
it makes all of the difference in the world. Black is final. It isn’t
soothing. It is nerve wracking. Black brings a sense of fear.
Brown is a lighter hue. Brown, while still not appealing, brings a
slight sense of hope that maybe if man can get past the “black”
West/East
Springs
Holy Ghost
Bent world
Breast/wings
that they see in life, they can move forward with hope towards
the “brown” moments in life that will propel them forward and
onto a better life. A life that involves God.
The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. This is metaphorical
for a new day. When the sun goes down in the west and the sky
becomes dark, there is always that brown hope in the horizon on
the east that channels the deeper meaning to life. It is God’s way
of caring, and His way of calling men home again. A fresh start.
Not comes, or begins, or walks, but springs. Now, why would the
new morning spring? Why is it so willing to bring hope to those
who really don’t deserve it? Because God is compassionate, and
He “springs” and helps at a seconds notice, even when there
doesn’t seem to be much hope that what He does will be
recognized. God and nature are too loving.
It’s interesting that the Holy Ghost is mentioned now, at the final
point in the poem. Why doesn’t God bend over the world and fix
everything? The Holy Ghost is his servant, and while God loves
the world, and He loves everyone and everything that He has
created, He knows that the world has forgotten Him, and he sends
His messenger to remind people that God is there, and He is
grand and important. It could be compared to having your mom
tell you to do something, verses “thinking” (in this case the Holy
Ghost) of doing the thing yourself.
Even after all that has happened, and the forgiveness of God, and
the brightness in the east, the world is still bent, and it always will
be. It is for the few that do love God that the Holy Ghost bends
and looks after especially.
Both of these would be considered a body part, even if not real
(wings). But both bring a sense of hope again and of comfort.
Usually behind the breast lies the heart, warm and steady. And
the wings are light and joyful and promote the awareness of being
willing to fly with God and be a willing partaker of His goodness.