The Prince of Wales Performs Hopkins’ ‘God’s Grandeur’ Poem

The Prince of Wales has recorded a performance of the ‘God’s Grandeur’ poem by Jesuit priest Gerard Manley Hopkins, to show support for Christians around the world at Easter. The poem will be played during the Easter Meditation virtual service at Stonyhurst College, the oldest Jesuit school in the world, on Sunday 4th April. The poem was written almost 150 years ago, but its promise of renewal for both our physical world and our spiritual lives, still resonates today. Poem: 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 do