God's Grandeur

“God’s Grandeur” is one of eleven sonnets set near St. Beuno’s College in rural North Wales, where Hopkins learned Welsh while studying theology at St. Beuno’s from 1875 to 1877. An expression of Hopkins’s deep religious faith and his belief in God’s divine presence in the world, the poem reflects the rhythms of Welsh poetry and illustrates Hopkins’s inventive, creative poetic language. It also reflects the influence of Romanticism in 19th-century English literature.