With Ah! Bright Wings (Poesy Edukation #1)

So, here's the thing: As much as I hate one Zooey Deschanel, I have a complete, and utter love for/obsession with the art of poetics. I love all things words, and even as some might claim that fine art is the highest of art forms, I would have to disagree. For me, there is nothing comparable to a poem; not a Rembrant nor a Raphael can equal a sentiment properly conceived, ordered, and spelled such as a poem is! (or is purposely chosen not to be, another discussion...)

But, for some reason, while I'm busy somewhere worshiping Keats, there are others (friends, I guess one might call them) who either fail to appreciate the glory of poetry or might even say they hate it! I forgot who said there's no use reasoning with the unreasonable, but I'm going to go ahead and cite such person, then proceed to ignore his/her warnings.

Poetry is for all! If you don't like it, or claim you don't it's because you've just yet to realize you do. Let us begin with one of my favorite poems (so far) and why you haven't realized it's one of your favorites, too. It's from where I stole the title of this blog.

God's Grandeur

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 with ah! bright wings.


It's by Gerald Manley Hopkins, a mid to late 19th century Jesuit, whom as you can tell by reading the poem, loved Jesus. For him, everything in the world was the product of something higher, God, which was certainly something to be marveled at.

But, there's no reason God's Grandeur can't affect the everyday atheist! Aside from the lyrical beauty of the actual poem, just simply how gorgeous it sounds, the idea expressed is a universal one.

No matter who created it, millions (including you, probably) sat in awe watching that one television special Planet Earth. Seeing those aerial shots off the coast of New Zealand or whatever, having your breath nearly taken away. That's the feeling of "with ah! bright wings."

Or how snow is not such a great thing now, but when you were young and you grabbed your sled to go, that's what "with ah! bright wings" means.

And even you jaded New Yorkers. When you saw 150 people huddled on either side of an aircraft in the middle of the Hudson, don't tell me you weren't affected by this sublime sight. I'm sure the passengers certainly were. "with ah! bright wings" indeed.


Hopkins put ink to a feeling we've all been inclined to in our lives. But now instead of just knowing it, a poet's touch lets you touch it.