Wednesday, November 28, 2012

How does the poem "God's Grandeur" comment on man's relationship with the nonhuman world?

In the poem "God's Grandeur," the nonhuman world is defined as a sort of spiritual charge emanating from God, which exists side by side with and enriches the human world. The human world, the speaker says, is "charged with the grandeur of God."
In the first part of the poem, the speaker asks, "Why do men then now not reck his rod?" In other words, why, the speaker asks, do men not heed and respect God's authority and embrace rather than deny this spiritual charge? The speaker then offers an answer to his own question. He suggests that generations of "trade" and "toil" have isolated man from God's "grandeur." Mankind has become so preoccupied with its own "trade" and "toil" that it can no longer sense God.
In the closing lines of the poem, the speaker says that, although mankind has cut itself off from God, God will always be present and ready "with warm breast" to embrace any who are willing to once more embrace him. In other words, there is salvation at hand and a possibility that mankind may be able to reconnect with God or the nonhuman world.

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