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God's presence is apparent in the beauty of nature. The world created by God is a perfect home to all living things. God has created an intricate world that is astonishing in its variety. In William Blake's 'The Lamb' and Gerard Manley Hopkins' 'Pied Beauty, ' the poets illustrate the theme that the beauty of the earth proves the existence of a benevolent creator.
Gerard Manley Hopkins was born on July 28, 1844. He was the first of nine children. He grew up in a family of writers and artists. At grammar school in High gate, he won the poetry prize for 'The Escorial' and a scholarship to Balliol College in Oxford. While there, he began to struggle with his Protestant faith and in 1866, Hopkins joined the Roman Catholic Church.
This distanced him from his parents and even more when he joined the Jesuit order and was ordained a priest. As a young man Hopkins experienced conflict between his desire to write poetry and his religious commitment. When he attempted to publish his first poem it was rejected. Hopkins died at age 44, of typhoid fever. 'His poetry will always be among the greatest poems of faith and doubt in the English language' (Gerard Manley Hopkins: An Overview). William Blake was born on November 28, 1757 in London. He was the third oldest of five children.
Blake went to school long enough to learn how to read and write. He then worked in his father's hosiery shop until the age of fourteen. His father then apprenticed Blake to an engraver when he saw his talent for drawing. William Blake married Catherine Boucher at the age of twenty-five. He taught her to read and write in order to help him in his work. Blake was an artist, a poet, and a visionary. 'His work was so incompatible with the taste of his day that his contemporaries could not appreciate his accomplishment' (British Literature).
Some looked at him as being inspired but irrational, while others claimed him to be mad. During his life he witnessed visions of angels sitting in a tree to messages from his dead brother. He thought these to be interactions with God, and this was inspiration for his poetry and art. In 1789, Blake published his first major piece of work, Songs of Innocence and later added a group of contrasting poems titled Songs of Experience. 'Blake died three months before his 70 th birthday, confident of the value of his work but still relatively unknown, his stunning originality as a poet and artist not to be recognized until well into the 20 th century' (British Literature). Both William Blake and Gerard Manley Hopkins were influenced by their historical time periods. Blake's life (1757 - 1827) spanned two time periods and reflects both.
He lived at the end of the Enlightenment or eighteenth century and the beginning of the Romantic Period. The historical events that influenced him were the French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, and the Agricultural Revolution. Blake was a pre-romantic poet who 'reacted against the emphasis on reason and the intellect' which was popular in the eighteenth century (Prentice 506). Like other pre-romantic poets, Blake 'disregarded the tastes of the time and reestablished the lyric' (Prentice 506). Blake's poems are closer to romantic poetry because they appeal to both, the reader's emotions and reason, they contain ordinary language, and in them, man and nature are closely related. Hopkins (1844 - 1889) lived at the end of the Victorian Period.
He lived at a time when England was the world's richest and strongest country. He was influenced by the middle-class beliefs in social responsibility and the work ethic. He became a Catholic priest to serve the poor. Like many Victorian writers, Hopkins expressed optimism in his poetry. He paved the way for Modern writers by experimenting with rhyme and rhythm. 'He developed what he called 'sprung rhythm. ' This is a system of versification in which accented syllables are grouped in emphatic patterns somewhat like those of Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse. The resulting meter is quite different from conventional English meter' (Prentice 852).
Both Blake and Hopkins are products of their times, yet both are rebels who developed new techniques and ideas. Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem, 'Pied Beauty' gives praises to God for the natural beauty of the world. Glory is given to God for spotted and splashed things, for skies spotted with a darker color and for fallen chestnuts that are the color of glowing coals. All opposing, original, spare, strange things; whatever is fickle and freckled, he created them all and deserves praise.
The following paragraph is a synopsis of William Blake's, 'The Lamb. ' Blake starts off by asking who made the little Lamb? He then asks who gave it life and food, and wooly bright clothing along with a soft voice. The maker of the Lamb is then questioned again. The author then tells the reader who made the little Lamb. He says that the creator has the same name, Lamb, and he is gentle and kind. He was once a little child and people are called by his name.
He then blesses God for the little Lamb. The dominant theme in 'Pied Beauty' by Gerard Manley Hopkins and 'The Lamb, ' by William Blake is that the natural beauty of the world created by God deserves praise. In 'Pied Beauty' it talks about how God created things that are multicolored such as skies, cows, trout, roasted chestnuts, wings of birds, landscapes, and tools used by humans. These things are dappled, branded, stippled, strange, and freckled. Hopkins' poem celebrates the wondrous variety that God has created. 'All things counter, original, spare, strange are manifestations of God's greatness' (Hopkins 7).
In 'The Lamb' one of God's creations is admired and praised. The Lamb is compared to a person and then to God himself. 'He is called by thy name/ For he calls himself a Lamb/'He became a little child/ I a child and thou a lamb/ We are called by his name' (Blake 13 - 14, 16 - 18). The benevolent creator deserves praise. Both Hopkins and Blake use setting and mood to underline their theme. The poem, 'Pied Beauty' is set in a colorful world where 'dappled things' and 'filed and freckled' things utterly fit together (Hopkins 1, 8). There are spots of pink on the trout that swim and the falling chestnuts are the color of glowing coal.
The cows are branded and the skies coupled. The setting as the author describes the world is one of beatitude. The setting and mood are the foundation of Hopkins' theme that a chivalrous maker lives due to the wondrous beauty of the world. Blake uses setting and mood to support his theme in 'The Lamb. ' The Lamb lives in a perfect world with streams and meadows all around. It is a place where 'all the vales rejoice' (Blake 8).
The mood is one of happiness. The flawless world of the Lamb and the mood justify the theme that the amazing beauty of the world proves that a greathearted father exists. Blake and Hopkins to sustain their themes use characterization. In 'Pied Beauty, ' the speaker is not named but most likely it is Hopkins himself. He praises and admires the colorful things in nature, as if he were a child. He talks about...
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Research essay sample on Created By God Read And Write
