Gerard Manley Hopkins and Thomas Hardy Portray God as a Grand, Personal Force or Energy

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Gerard Manley Hopkins and Thomas Hardy portray God as a grand, personal force or energy. These two writers had many things in common but also factors that distinguished them greatly. Hopkins and Hardy were both born in the United Kingdom and were only a few years apart, Hopkins being 4 years older than Hardy. Hopkins was an English poet as well as Hardy with the exception that Hardy also wrote novels. Although both poets seem to portray God as grand, personal force of energy in their writing, their personal view and relationship with God oppose one another. Hopkins was “Reverend father Gerard Manley Hopkins.” He was a Roman Catholic and a Jesuit priest. Thomas Hardy was a Victorian Realist who had mixed feelings on religion. The irony and struggles of life and a curious mind led him to question the traditional Christian view of God. Never the less they both believed in a greater power and the evidence is in these poets writing. We can see in Gerard Manley Hopkins “God’s Grandeur” and Thomas Hardy’s “The Convergence of the Twain”, the portrayal of a grand God in how it’s taken in literal context, grand not exactly meaning nice. It is observable to see a personal force and not impersonal because of word choices by the authors themselves. Grandeur is splendor and impressiveness, especially of appearance or style, high rank or social importance. This is the definition of Grandeur. Sometimes we associate it with words like “nice” or “great”. It wouldn’t be out of the ordinary if you might associate “nice” with the title of Gerard Manley Hopkins poem “God’s Grandeur”. The question is, “Is it relatable to what narrator is writing about?” In this case not so much. To better understand the poem let’s take a look at some synonyms for grandeur. Splendor, magnificence, impressiveness, glory, resplendence, majesty, and greatness are all synonyms for the word grandeur. In

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