"Dover Beach" ( Matthew Arnold ) and "God's Grandeur" ( Gerard Manley Hopkins )

Paper Summary:

"Matthew Arnold, in "Dover Beach" (1848?), and Gerard Manley Hopkins, in "God's Grandeur" (1877), are both concerned with the question of the presence of God or religious faith in the world.

From the Paper:

"Matthew Arnold, in "Dover Beach" (1848?), and Gerard Manley Hopkins, in "God's Grandeur" (1877), are both concerned with the question of the presence of God or religious faith in the world. Neither poet actually asks a question, however, as Arnold sees the "Sea of Faith" withdrawing from the world, while Hopkins enthusiastically perceives God's presence in everything around him. Both poets, however, see human failure to appreciate God as part of the problem of their own times. But where Arnold sees the only option as withdrawal from a world with neither "certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain", Hopkins regrets the blindness of human beings who have come to dissociate themselves from God, even though He is always there in the world. A comparison of the two poems demonstrates not only the difference in their views of religion but the manner in which these ..."

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