Poem of the Week ~ Gerard Manley Hopkins' God's Grandeur

This week I've been thinking about my favorite Catholic poets, and my mind has repeatedly returned to Gerard Manley Hopkins, a 19th century British Jesuit.  His collection is rather extensive, but "God's Grandeur" has long stood apart as a favorite of mine.  It reminds me of the Eternity that is God and that every part of the world is infused with Him.  He will remain constant in His Love.

"God's Grandeur"

Gerard Manley Hopkins

(1844-1889)

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;

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;

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 ah! bright wings.

Do you have a favorite poet? 

Have you read any poems by Hopkins?