The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

I feel the theme of the novel is one of a yearning for freedom for all men.

Miss Watson was harder on Huck and more judgmental than her sister.

His mother is dead, and his dad is a drunk. He is beaten and mistreated. It causes the reader to feel compassion for Huck, and realize that he acts the way he does because he has never had a good family life. It is understandable why a person like Huck would not want to be part of a family.

The basic difference between Huck and Tom is that Tom doesn’t mind being settled or tied-down to a family. (They are both orphans, other than that, they are opposites.)

The book is full of satire. The Grangerfords and the Sheperdsons were supposed to be a couple of up-standing, noble families. However, they were in a feud that neither side could remember how it began. In chapter twenty-five the king mistakenly says orgies for obsequies. When he realizes his mistake, he explains that orgies is the word they use in England. Even the most educated towns person does not question it. When the king and duke get tarred and feathered, Huck speaks of how cruel the civilized townspeople were to the men. In the beginning of the book, Tom tells Huck that they are going to form a band of robbers. However, Huck must go back to the widow’s so that he can be respectable.

Three yarns Huck spins are as follows. Huck told Jim that Jim must have dreamed the separation of the two in the fog. It showed how much Jim trusted Huck and how bad it hurt Jim’s feelings that Huck would lie to him. He tells the sister with the hair lip, Joanna, that William IV goes to church with Huck. She does not buy it to start with, which shows that the younger people are not as gullible as their elders. It is not until the elder sister tells her that he must be telling the truth that the girl with the hair lip quiets down. He tells the woman that he is a girl so that he get some information. She quickly catches on that he is a boy. This shows that women ten to be more observant than men and cannot be fooled as easily as men.

Huck observes violence in several places in the book. Huck personally observes violence when his father continually beats him after getting him back home. The two men in the sinking steamboat with the other man is a time when Huck observes violence. Grangerford feud is a time that Huck observes violence. When Colonel Sherburn shoots Boggs is a time that Huck observes violence. Huck observes violence when the towns people tar and feather the king and duke.

I did not find any sexual overtones to the book. However, I decided to research it and found that a lot of people think that Huck’s love for Jim is a homosexual love instead of a brotherly love. I do not see it because they based this on Jim calling Huck “honey” or “chile.” Being from the south, it just sounded like normal language to me. Is it possible that his crush on the older sister, Mary Jane, could have something to do with sexual overtones?

Three scenes/speeches that satirized religious distortions. In Chapter 3 Huck tells us, “Sometimes the widow would take me one side and talk about Providence in a way to make a body's mouth water; but maybe next day Miss Watson would take hold and knock it all down again. I judged I could see that there was two Providences, and a poor chap would stand considerable show with the widow's Providence, but if Miss Watson's got him there warn't no help for him any more.”

We read in Chapter 14, “"Well, but he WAS the wisest man, anyway; because the widow she told me so, her own self."

"I doan k'yer what de widder say, he WARN'T no wise man nuther. He had some er de dad-fetchedes' ways I ever see. Does you know 'bout dat chile dat he 'uz gwyne to chop in two?"

"Yes, the widow told me all about it."

"WELL, den! Warn' dat de beatenes' notion in de worl'? You jes' take en look at it a minute. Dah's de stump, dah -- dat's one er de women; heah's you -- dat's de yuther one; I's Sollermun; en dish yer dollar bill's de chile. Bofe un you claims it. What does I do? Does I shin aroun' mongs' de neighbors en fine out which un you de bill DO b'long to, en han' it over to de right one, all safe en soun', de way dat anybody dat had any gumption would? No; I take en whack de bill in TWO, en give half un it to you, en de yuther half to de yuther woman. Dat's de way Sollermun was gwyne to do wid de chile. Now I want to ast you: what's de use er dat half a bill? -- can't buy noth'n wid it. En what use is a half a chile? I wouldn' give a dern for a million un um."”

Furthermore Chapter 18 states, “Next Sunday we all went to church, about three mile, everybody a-horseback. The men took their guns along, so did Buck, and kept them between their knees or stood them handy against the wall. The Shepherdsons done the same. It was pretty ornery preaching -- all about brotherly love, and such-like tiresomeness; but everybody said it was a good sermon, and they all talked it over going home, and had such a powerful lot to say about faith and good works and free grace and preforeordestination, and I don't know what all, that it did seem to me to be one of the roughest Sundays I had run across yet.”

According to environmental determinism, the people decended from Greco-Roman ancestary are supposed to be the superior race. Therefore, Huck was raised believing that the white man had the God given right to rule over other races. In chapter thirty-one, Huck decided that since it was Miss Watson’s God given right to own Jim, it was Huck’s responsibility to let Miss Watson have her property back. However, when he decided not to send the letter to Miss Watson, he believed that he would be going to hell.

Huck is an existentialist because he struggles with right and wrong. He knows that he is supposed to support slavery, but he sees problems with supporting slavery. He decided that being a Christian was not right for him because he did not agree with what he thought Christianity was.

Though the language suggests, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a racist novel, this does not seem to be true. Though Jim spoke different, he had a more intellectual view on the world than a lot of the white characters. The story is a satire against slavery. Though Huck is told that slavery is okay, he cannot reconcile that viewpoint. The scene with the separation of the slave family in chapter twenty-seven critiques the cruel act of separating husbands from wives and children from parents, which was common practice during the time the novel was set.

Phelps’ plantation events are be considered a weakness for various reasons. It is hard to believe that Aunt Sally did not know her own nephew. It is also a tiring and boring part of the novel to read. It does not have much substance or meaning, and Tom seems to take over. Also, the fact that Tom knew Jim was free, but did not say anything until after he got himself shot was a pretty cruel notion.

The river symbolizes freedom from the constrictions of society.

The Winds Which Stir Antonio

Though it does not play the most important role in Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, wind does play a significant part in the story. Throughout this coming of age story, important changes become predictable through the wind. This symbol is used as both a foreshadowing tool, as well as a metaphor. When Anaya, mentions “wind,” the reader can rest assured that the story’s protagonist, Antonio is about to experience an event that will leave an impression on his soul. The type of wind that Antonio speaks of can also predict the nature of such events. The winds that stir Antonio strip away his innocence and help him to realize that he is in control of his destiny. They lead to spiritual growth and understanding. These winds gave Antonio a deeper understanding and knowledge than his peers.

In the first chapter, Anaya refers to the wind on two different occasions. The first is during the birth of Antonio, when his parents’ families feuded over the future of the newborn. However, when Antonio first meets Ultima, Anaya uses the wind in a more significant manner. To Antonio, this meeting was the beginning of the changes that were to come. He says, “She took my hand, and I felt the power of a whirlwind sweep around me” [italics mine] (12). From this point on, Antonio began to see the world in a new and exciting way.

Unfortunately, the winds in Bless Me, Ultima do not always bring forth enjoyable changes for the young boy. Though the wind brings changes that cause positive spiritual growth, they tend to do so in a more ominous manner. In chapter six, Antonio describes the dark, evil power of the wind or dust devils. All of Antonio’s acquaintances know the unnatural, evil power of these vicious winds; therefore, they ward the devils off with “the sign of the cross.” Out of curiosity, Antonio purposely does not ward off the dust devil and says after he was struck by the wicked wind, “its evil was left imprinted on my soul” (55). Afterward, Antonio takes his first step toward losing his innocence. He now enters school where he begins his long, tumultuous quest of learning.

More innocence is lost as Antonio’s family learns of a curse that has been put on an uncle, Lucas. He had happened upon the Trementia sisters, known witches, celebrating their black mass. During this encounter, the wind was dreary and cold, which gives a sense of death. The winds are just as menacing as Pedro, Antonio, and Ultima travel to free Lucas from his curse. All around the trio, a brutal dust storm violently rips through the landscape. The skies are dark. This gives the reader with an impending sense of doom and wickedness. The events that followed signified an important turning point in Antonio’s life. This was when Antonio first began to question God and his faith. Antonio could not understand how Ultima had the power to free Lucas from his curse, but God did not. This moment caused a struggle between faith and magic that would follow Antonio throughout the book. Another important event that lead to significant change and reinforced the struggle between magic and faith was the death of Narciso. Before his death, Narciso challenged the blizzard, or, in order to warn his friend, Ultima, of Tenorio’s threat on her life. This cold, fierce, blinding north wind was symbolic for the death that was soon to follow. However the death that coincided with the blizzard was not only the death of Antonio’s friend, but also the symbolic death of his admiration of his older brother Andrew.

Though other winds blow throughout the book, the winds in the final chapter bring an end to this particular journey in Antonio’s life. The winds here bring forth peace and clarity.  His father, for the first time, allows Antonio to be free to choose his future. He tells the young boy that he is descended from people “who held the wind as brother, because he is free” (247). His father goes on to tell him that his mother is from the earth and the two are often “at odds” with one another. Furthermore, the final winds in Bless Me, Ultima are mournful and serene, and they are even found in Ultima’s final words. She tells Antonio he will be able to find her in the gentle winds of the evening (261). This final change and final mention of the wind had brought Antonio closer to maturity than his peers. It left him stripped from his innocence and in control of his future.

Works Cited

Anaya, Rudolfo. Bless Me, Ultima. New York: Grand Central, 1972.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The Eolian Harp

composed at clevedon, somersetshire

My pensive Sara! thy soft cheek reclined

Thus on mine arm, most soothing sweet it is

To sit beside our Cot, our Cot o’ergrown

With white-flowered Jasmin, and the broad-leaved Myrtle,

(Meet emblems they of Innocence and Love!)

And watch the clouds, that late were rich with light,

Slow saddening round, and mark the star of eve

Serenely brilliant (such would Wisdom be)

Shine opposite! How exquisite the scents

Snatched from yon bean-field! and the world so hushed!

The stilly murmur of the distant Sea

Tells us of silence.

                            And that simplest Lute,

Placed length-ways in the clasping casement, hark!

How by the desultory breeze caressed,

Like some coy maid half yielding to her lover,

It pours such sweet upbraiding, as must needs

Tempt to repeat the wrong! And now, its strings

Boldlier swept, the long sequacious notes

Over delicious surges sink and rise,

Such a soft floating witchery of sound

As twilight Elfins make, when they at eve

Voyage on gentle gales from Fairy-Land,

Where Melodies round honey-dropping flowers,

Footless and wild, like birds of Paradise,

Nor pause, nor perch, hovering on untamed wing!

O! the one Life within us and abroad,

Which meets all motion and becomes its soul,

A light in sound, a sound-like power in light,

Rhythm in all thought, and joyance everywhere—

Methinks, it should have been impossible

Not to love all things in a world so filled;

Where the breeze warbles, and the mute still air

Is Music slumbering on her instrument.

    And thus, my Love! as on the midway slope

Of yonder hill I stretch my limbs at noon,

Whilst through my half-closed eyelids I behold

The sunbeams dance, like diamonds, on the main,

And tranquil muse upon tranquility:

Full many a thought uncalled and undetained,

And many idle flitting phantasies,

Traverse my indolent and passive brain,

As wild and various as the random gales

That swell and flutter on this subject Lute!

    And what if all of animated nature

Be but organic Harps diversely framed,

That tremble into thought, as o’er them sweeps

Plastic and vast, one intellectual breeze,

At once the Soul of each, and God of all?

    But thy more serious eye a mild reproof

Darts, O beloved Woman! nor such thoughts

Dim and unhallowed dost thou not reject,

And biddest me walk humbly with my God.

Meek Daughter in the family of Christ!

Well hast thou said and holily dispraised

These shapings of the unregenerate mind;

Bubbles that glitter as they rise and break

On vain Philosophy’s aye-babbling spring.

For never guiltless may I speak of him,

The Incomprehensible! save when with awe

I praise him, and with Faith that inly feels;

Who with his saving mercies healèd me,

A sinful and most miserable man,

Wildered and dark, and gave me to possess

Peace, and this Cot, and thee, heart-honored Maid!

Kubla Kahn

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure-dome decree:

Where Alph, the sacred river, ran

Through caverns measureless to man

Down to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground

With walls and towers were girdled round:

And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,

Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;

And here were forests ancient as the hills,

Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted

Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!

A savage place! as holy and enchanted

As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted

By woman wailing for her demon-lover!

And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,

As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,

A mighty fountain momently was forced:

Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst

Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,

Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail:

And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever

It flung up momently the sacred river.

Five miles meandering with a mazy motion

Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,

Then reached the caverns measureless to man,

And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:

And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far

Ancestral voices prophesying war!

The shadow of the dome of pleasure

Floated midway on the waves;

Where was heard the mingled measure

From the fountain and the caves.

It was a miracle of rare device,

A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

A damsel with a dulcimer

In a vision once I saw:

It was an Abyssinian maid,

And on her dulcimer she played,

Singing of Mount Abora.

Could I revive within me

Her symphony and song,

To such a deep delight 'twould win me

That with music loud and long

I would build that dome in air,

That sunny dome! those caves of ice!

And all who heard should see them there,

And all should cry, Beware! Beware!

His flashing eyes, his floating hair!

Weave a circle round him thrice,

And close your eyes with holy dread,

For he on honey-dew hath fed

And drunk the milk of Paradise.

I have always enjoyed Coleridge’s poetry. I like the imagery that Coleridge used in these two poems. Coleridge paints a beautiful picture. There is a dark undertone to his poetry as well. From what I have read, all Romantics have that particular element.

Coleridge sees himself as a priest-like visionary with a connection to God. Coleridge feels it is his responsibility to share the vision of God to the people. Like Wordsworth, Coleridge’s vision of God comes from nature.

“And that simplest lute,….Is Music slumbering on her instrument.” (lines 13-33)

Coleridge sees the poet as the lute, and the breeze is his muse. She gives him songs of beauty and God. These songs were meant to uplift the soul of man. The poet must translate these songs for the rest of us to hear, so that we all see the light. If the poet does not translate the “Music” or the message, then the message will never be heard.

“And what if all of animated nature….At once the Soul of each, and God of All?” (lines 44-48)

If we all were poets, our words would mean little. The rational or “intellectual breeze,” would change the meaning of nature, the meaning of God.

“On vain Philosophy’s aye-babbling spring….Peace, and this cot, and the, heart-honored Maid!” (lines 57-64)

Coleridge tells us that while he is in nature, down by the spring, he is with God. Coleridge goes on to say that he was “a sinful and most miserable man,” but because he found peace in his God, he has peace and beauty in his life.

“A damsel with a dulcimer…That sunny dome! those caves of ice!” (lines 37-47)

The narrator saw a woman in a vision. She sang a song that filled him with peace and happiness. Her song told the narrator that he must help to rebuild a paradise. The paradise should be well balanced.

Unlike Blake, Coleridge sees himself as more of a translator or priest-like visionary than a god-like prophet. Blake says, “Hear the voice of the bard! Who Present, Past, & Future sees;…” In other words, Blake is saying, I am all knowing and all seeing. Coleridge is more subtle with his message. In “The Eolin Harp” he says, “And the simplest lute…” This can be translated as I am just a simple instrument which nature uses to spread her message.

A Special Place

When I would become exhausted and felt like I could not go any further, I would gather up the kids and show up on my grandmother’s doorstep. I loved being there. She lived out in the country. Though she did have electricity, Grandma rarely uses it. She did not have cable and only watched the television for the news, “Wheel of Fortune, ” or old black and white TV shows and movies via DVD. Grandma lived out in the country, and this was where I go to reconnect with God and all of the beauty he has given us. I felt centered there and longed for the peaceful lifestyle that she led. It was just Grandma, my uncle, the boys, and me (maybe a stray cow or two); and God was always present. When I went to her house, I felt much closer to God. I felt refreshed and ready for another day.

Chapter 13: Creating: The Truth of Beauty

There are two main views of art in the Christian world. People either feel that art is dangerous because it “distracts us from our primary love for God” (157). Or, they feel that art is here for us to enjoy, and it is separate from the church. Others views agree that art and imagination can be “used and abused,” but serve “a distinct spiritual purpose in individuals’ lives and in the church” (158). It is important for us to remember that art and beauty comes from God, and God is the very essence of beauty (Psalms 27:4). Furthermore, according to Ephesians 2:10 we are all “God’s handiwork or compositions” (159). Tippens also reminds us that Jesus was an artist (carpenter) that saw beauty in everything around him. Also Tippens tells us that art can lead others to faith, and most art comes from the artists’ search for something beyond the physical world.

I agree that the ability to create art through film, books, music, singing, acting, drawing, and painting are all gifts from God. Like Tippens, I feel that the temptation to misuse these abilities can be dangerous. In American society, it is common for artists to move away from their original intention, transcendentalism, and toward art for the sake of money. This is why I agree with Tippens that the church should not shun the artists in the congregation. They should welcome the artists with opened arms just as they welcome everyone else. With much of the media in the world it is hard to see the beauty in everything. However, artists have the ability to imagine what the rest of us cannot. This makes them an invaluable asset to their congregation. We must be careful, though, to positively spark the creativity and imagination of our artists of tomorrow. After all, “the Bible itself is a majestic work of art” (165).

William Blake

Garden of Love

I went to the Garden of Love,
And saw what I never had seen:
A Chapel was built in the midst,
Where I used to play on the green.

And the gates of this Chapel were shut,
And "Thou shalt not" writ over the door;
So I turned to the Garden of Love,
That so many sweet flowers bore;

And I saw it was filled with graves,
And tombstones where flowers should be;
And Priests in black gowns were walking their rounds,
And binding with briers my joys and desires.

London

I wander thro' each charter'd street,
Near where the charter'd Thames does flow,
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

In every cry of every Man,
In every Infant's cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forg'd manacles I hear.

How the Chimney-sweeper's cry
Every blackning Church appalls,
And the hapless Soldier's sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls.

But most thro' midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlot's curse
Blasts the new-born Infant's tear,
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.

Songs of Experience

Infant Joy

I have no name
I am but two days old.—
What shall I call thee?
I happy am
Joy is my name,—
Sweet joy befall thee!

Pretty joy!
Sweet joy but two days old,
Sweet joy I call thee;
Thou dost smile.
I sing the while
Sweet joy befall thee.

Infant Sorrow

My mother groand! my father wept.
Into the dangerous world I leapt:
Helpless, naked, piping loud;
Like a fiend hid in a cloud.

Struggling in my fathers hands:
Striving against my swaddling bands:
Bound and weary I thought best
To sulk upon my mothers breast.

And did those feet

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon Englands mountains green:
And was the holy Lamb of God,
On Englands pleasant pastures seen!

And did the Countenance Divine,
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here,
Among these dark Satanic Mills?

Bring me my Bow of burning gold:
Bring me my arrows of desire:
Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!
Bring me my Chariot of fire!

I will not cease from Mental Fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand:
Till we have built Jerusalem,
In Englands green & pleasant Land.

Blake shows contempt for society and the church. Blake must have felt that living within society’s boundaries restricted spirituality and individuality.

Struggling in my father’s hands, / Striving against my swaddling bands,” (“Infant Sorrow;” p. 95; lines 5-6) 

Although Blake’s father raised him to conform to society, he found it too constricting. Blake will strive if he breaks free from his rearing.

“I will not cease from Mental Fight, / Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand, / Till we have built Jerusalem / In England’s green and pleasant Land.” (“And did those feet;” p. 124; lines 13-16) 

Blake warns that no one can stop his mind. Blake’s “Sword” is his pen. He will continue to fight with words. Blake will not end his battle  until the views of England’s society changes.

“I went to the Garden of Love, / And saw what I never had seen: / A Chapel was built in the midst, / Where I used to play on the green. / And the gates of this Chapel were shut, / And “Thou shalt not” writ over the door; / So I turn’d to the Garden of Love, / That so many sweet flowers bore, / And I saw it was filled with graves, And tomb-stones where flowers should be; / And Priests in black gowns were walking their rounds, And binding with briars my joys & desires.” 

The Garden of Love was once a beautiful, peaceful place where one could find God. The church has, now, turned its back on its people and  restricted them to the point of spiritual death.

“O Earth, O Earth, Return! / Arise from out the dewy grass; / Night is worn / And the morn / Rises from the slumberous mass.” (“From Songs of Experience;” p. 88; lines 11-15) 

Blake’s use of symbolism is rich in this verse. Blake calls for spiritual awakening throughout the land. He tells the reader to turn on their inner light. The time for dark times is over. Your inner light will aid in awakening others.

In our media-driven society, it is difficult for a person to show individuality. If a person acts different, doctors are quick to medicate them so they are like everyone else. People far too often use plastic surgery and bariatric surgery to change what makes them different. The media pushes conformity in similar ways Blake’s society pushed conformity.

Whitman and Dickinson

To understand the difference between Whitman’s and Dickinson’s views of nature, the reader must first understand how Whitman and Dickinson view themselves and their individual connection to God. According to Susan Belasco Smith, Whitman “fuses the self to the world” (113). He sees interconnectedness between God, humankind, and nature. Whitman believed we are all a part of God, everything exists in God, and God exists in everything.

In “Song of Myself” Whitman wrote, “I will go to the bank by the wood and become undisguised and naked” (line 19). Not only was Whitman trying to shock the prudish people of his time, but also he was trying to have them understand the body is beautiful and sacred. When Whitman uses I, myself, or me; it must be understood that he does not mean the individual. Instead, he is saying I, myself, or me, who is one with God, all of humankind, and nature.

Unlike Whitman, when Dickinson uses the words I, myself, or me; she is speaking of the lonely, isolated individual. She felt hopeless and powerless in the world. When describing Dickinson’s view of self, Smith states, “the self is ultimately lonely, separate from nature and God, and constantly involved in conflict” (113). Due to her sense of powerlessness, Dickinson’s poetry is often filled with death, pain, and despair. In poem number two-hundred-fifty-eight, Dickinson writes, “Heavenly Hurt, it gives us – / We can find no scar, / But internal difference, / Where the Meanings, are –“ (lines 5-8).

Dickinson speaks of a spiritual pain in which one cannot ever escape. Although Whitman and Dickinson had such radically different views on the connection between God, humankind, and nature, it is important for the reader to remember both poets believed in a transcendent God, and they both saw the beauty in nature. It seems, however, their differences lie in the role of humans in the world. 

Smith, Susan Belasco. “Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson: Poetry of the Central Consciousness by Agnieszka Salska.” South Central Review. Vol. 4.4: Winter 1987: 112-115.

Gerard Manley Hopkins

“God’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;        5
  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;        10
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.

“The Windhover” 

To Christ our Lord

I CAUGHT this morning morning’s minion, king-
  dom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
  Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,        5
  As a skate’s heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
  Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird,—the achieve of; the mastery of the thing!

Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
  Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion        10
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!

  No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
  Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.

“Carrion Comfort”

NOT, I’ll not, carrion comfort, Despair, not feast on thee;
Not untwist—slack they may be—these last strands of man
In me ór, most weary, cry I can no more. I can;
Can something, hope, wish day come, not choose not to be.
But ah, but O thou terrible, why wouldst thou rude on me        5
Thy wring-world right foot rock? lay a lionlimb against me? scan
With darksome devouring eyes my bruisèd bones? and fan,
O in turns of tempest, me heaped there; me frantic to avoid thee and flee?

Why? That my chaff might fly; my grain lie, sheer and clear.
Nay in all that toil, that coil, since (seems) I kissed the rod,        10
Hand rather, my heart lo! lapped strength, stole joy, would laugh, chéer.
Cheer whom though? the hero whose heaven-handling flung me, fóot tród
Me? or me that fought him? O which one? is it each one? That night, that year
Of now done darkness I wretch lay wrestling with (my God!) my God.

Analysis

To Hopkins, God is the creator and the savior of man. He is the power, truth, beauty, and answer. Also to Hopkins, God is all around man, even if they do not notice Him.

“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?” (“God’s Grandeur;” lines 1-4) 

Hopkins uses an electrical current and oil as metaphors for the power, beauty, and majesty of God. The power, beauty, and majesty have been infused through the entire world. Most men do not see or feel the “grandeur” of God, though it is there. Because they do not see him, these men ignore God.

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. (“God’s Grandeur”) 

Despite the destruction of the world due to the Industrial Revolution, nature still exists because of God. The beauty and power of God can be found in nature because it is an indication of God’s existence, more like a manifestation. God creates life even in the darkest recesses of the world.

“daylight’s dauphin” (“The Windhover;” line 2) 

Hopkins use of daylight is a metaphor for God. Daylight is known in many cultures as a giver of life, because without sunlight, life cannot be sustained. For Christians, God is the giver of life. Without God, life cannot be sustained.

Why? That my chaff might fly; my grain lie, sheer and clear. / Nay in all that toil, that coil, since (seems) I kissed the rod, / Hand rather, my heart lo! lapped strength, stole joy, would laugh, chéer. / Cheer whom though? the hero whose heaven-handling flung me, fóot tród / Me? or me that fought him? O which one? is it each one? That night, that year / Of now done darkness I wretch lay wrestling with (my God!) my God. (“Carrion Comfort;” lines 9-14) 

Regardless of all of Hopkins’ suffering, he accepted God. His acceptance has made him happy and strong. Though he still suffers and questions his faith, God still rescued him, and beauty is still around him. God is his answer, his truth.

Hopkins’ poetry all seems to have the same underlying theme. The three poems assigned reflect man’s struggle with God. In “God’s Grandeur,” Hopkins admits that not all men are believers, and some who do believe, ignore God. These same assumptions can be made about man in today’s society. Paganism and Wicca are on the rise, as is the claims of Atheistic beliefs. These shifts in religious beliefs are evidence of man’s struggle with God.