Introduction of the Poem:
The sonnet entitled "Thou Art Indeed Just Lord" was written on March 17, 1889. During that time, the poet was suffering from a sense of utter despair because he remained unsuccessful in the sphere of composing good and impressive poem. He was unable to write an immortal piece of poem which could live forever. He made his utmost efforts to create a unique piece of poetry, but in vain. This filled him great sense of frustration and the poetic barrenness had come over the poet for some years. He was completely deprived of impressive thoughts. In the present poem, the poet expresses a sense of bitter rebellion against God, who allows sinners to prosper, while the poet priest, writhes the consciousness of failure, frustration, and creative barrenness. This religious poem brings out the situation of an essentially isolated man. In this poem, there is a sense of sterility felt in contrast with other living things. The theme of the poem is creative barrenness.
Summary of the Poem:
In the beginning when the poet contemplates about true nature and existence of God, he finds Him the glory of the world. He shows his firm faith in God's greatness. After his close observation, he is willing to accept the fact that God is indeed an impartial judge and he firmly believes that God can never make wrong judgement. When he argues, with someone, he never hesitates to call God a true judge and he also praises His judgement. Yet sometimes a sort of mental conflict goes on in his mind in the concern of God's judgement. A doubt arises in his mind and he thinks whether God is just and whether He makes right judgement with everyone. The poet seems to be right at his place when he asks why the sinner, immoral and corrupt persons are given opportunity to flourish in this world whereas the hardworking, honest and sincere persons like the poet have to struggle throughout life but they can never meet with their success. At this place the poet is greatly confused and feels doubt at the fair judgement of God. He asks if God is a true judge, why all his sincere and honest efforts, both in respect of his profession as a priest and in respect of the exercise of his poetic faculty, end in failure and disappointment.
When the poet sees the prosperity and great achievements of the sinners who have spent their whole life committing heinous deeds and crimes, he feels somewhat bewildered at God's judgement. He becomes the victim of suspicious feelings at the method of God's judgement. He blames against injustice of God. He regards God the enemy of those who spend an industrious, honest and sincere life and always remain busy in their task, but they instead of getting success, remain failure. The hardworking and honest people lead a strugglesome and hard life of utter poverty. Good fortune never dawns upon them and they always long for success and a life of prosperity, but unfortunately they are ever deprived of them. They spend their life enduring the misfortunes and difficulties of life. Their efforts end in failure and disappointment. But later on like the other people he thinks that God cannot be his enemy because he is the friend of all. He then acknowledges God's love and affection for him. He thinks that if God had been his enemy, he could not have done more to defeat and frustrate the poet's sincere efforts than He is doing as his friend.
One thing makes the poet highly happy with the drunkards, lechers, immoral and other kinds of sinner who are always involved in various kinds of sins. The poet thinks that God shows His special grace and blessing for these people and brings them a great heap of fortunes. They lead a happy and pleasureful life without many efforts. Even their idle hours bring them more prosperity and pleasure. But on the other hand the poet finds that he who has spent his whole life in sincere service of God and has never gone aside the way of purity and morality, has ever been aspiring for a life of success and pleasure, but in vain. God has never showed his blessings for him.
The poet is highly dejected and upset at the barrenness of his life. Due to not getting the taste of success and pleasures, the poet's life has become completely monotonous. It has dried up . Nothing has left in his life. There is only desolation and emptiness. Even he has lost his mental capacity because of having a heavy weight of misfortunes, and sorrows. Then he draws the attention of God to some phenomena in the world of Nature. He observes that it is the routine process of Nature that after autumn, spring season comes which brings utter prosperity in Nature. He finds that in the middle of March the hedge grows and thickets of the countryside are overcrowded with fresh, shining green leaves. They are once more intertwined with chervil and with the gust of fresh wind, they dance with joy. They move or sway to and fro as if showing their unbounded joy. In this season, the birds are also busy in the task of making their nests for breeding their young ones. But the poet's life is completely desolated. No spring season comes in his life to fill him with new joys and pleasures. He finds himself unable to create or to obtain something. His hard and industrious life has brought no success for him. He can only take mental stress by making futile efforts at poetic composition, but he cannot be able to create or to produce something greater which can remain alive for ever. Time has made him eunuch. He has lost his capability of productivity. The faculty of his mind is not illumined with thoughts. Inspiration never dawns upon him. Addressing God as a lord of life, he prays to God to fertilize the dry roots of his poetic inspiration by sending the showers of rain.
Critical Appreciation of the Poem:
Introduction:
The poem entitled Thou Art Indeed Just Lord" is a religious sonnet which brings the situation of an essentially isolated man isolated as much by choice as by chance. It was written on March 17, 1889. It expresses a sense of bitter rebellion against God who allows sinners to prosper, while the poet, priest writes beneath the consciousness of failure, frustration, and creative barrenness. This frustration has been given articulation in this famous sonnet and the frustration of the following lines is unsurpassed:
“... birds build - but not I build; no, but strain,
Time's eunuch, and not breed one work that wakes.”
When this poem was written by Hopkins in March, the poet was suffering from a sense of utter despair because he could not write poetry that could live. This sense of frustration and poetic barrenness had come over the poet for quite some years.
Thought - Content:
The poet admits the fact that God is just and kind and hastens to question his belief and asks why sinners prosper and why his own efforts, both as a priest and as a poet come to nothing. He recognizes the fact that God is his friend but asks again what worse treatment God could have accorded to him if God had been his enemy instead of a friend. He goes on to complain that drunkards and lechers - that is, sinners of various kinds - prosper even in their spare or idle moments much more than the poet who is spending his whole life in the service of God. Nature renews itself. The trees and thickets are thickly crowded with fresh leaves. The birds too are busy building their nests in the trees and hedges. But so far as the poet is concerned, he finds himself unable to build or to achieve anything. He can only bear mental stress by making futile efforts at poetic composition, but he cannot be able to create or to produce something greater which can remain alive forever. He calls himself Time's eunuch that is one who has been rendered unproductive by the passing of time. He prays to God to bless him with poetic inspiration why may enable him to achieve the fulfilment of his poetic aspiration.
Religious Fervour and the Feelings of Desolation:
The isolated man is an intensely sensitive man, convinced of the rightness of his beliefs, yet his honesty will let him escape from the difficulty of them. In this poem, there is a sense of sterility felt in contrast with other living things. Prayer for rain to make fruitful his own private waste land is part of this poem, which mixes faith and anger and frustration in a markedly less mannered style. It is a poem of despair, but a poem in which Hopkins tries to combat his despair. The poem is as well argumentative as devotional:
“Wert thou my enemy, O thou my friend,
How wouldst thou worse, I wonder, than thou dost
Defeat, thwart me?”
Theme of the Poem:
The theme of the poem is the creative barrenness. Like Coleridge, he puts his creative genius against in consciousness of declining powers. He calls himself ‘Time's eunuch’ and states that he has not been able to produce even a single work of lasting work. The sense of failure and frustration is so clear in those last lines. Hopkins invokes the blessings of God. His roots are dry, and can be only revitalized by the divine water:
“See, banks and brakes
Now, leaned how thick! laced they are again
With fretty chervil, look, and fresh wind shakes
Them; birds build - but not I build; no, but strain,
Time's eunuch, and not breed one work that wakes.
Mine, O thou lord of life, send my roots rain.”
Style and Language:
The poem has a remarkable unity of thoughts. It has been written in a straightforward style. The lucidity and clarity of expression here are unusual in Hopkins. The ‘Lord’ has been frequently addressed herein. The poet has made use of contrasting parallels, alliterations, repetitions, metaphors and images. What a fine use of metaphor in ‘Time's eunuch’, and of alliteration in ‘banks and brakes’, ‘birds build’, ‘work that wakes’, and ‘roots rain’. A tone of informality is conveyed by the word ‘Sir’. The poet seems to be speaking to God almost on terms of equality. The poem ends on a slightly plaintive note, culminating in a request which is a cross between a plea and a demand. There is nothing either in the vocabulary or in the syntax here to baffle us. Some irregularities are there, of course: for instance: “birds build - but not I build.” The word ‘mine’ at the beginning of line fourteen too does not fit into the construction of the sentence. But the whole the poem is easy enough, despite our unfamiliarity with ‘fretty chervil’ which is a kind of wild plant with finely indented leaves:
“Now leaved how thick! laced they are again
With fretty chervil, look, and fresh wind shakes.”
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