A Poem Conversation - Improvised

The poems “Design” by Robert Frost and “God's Grandeur” by Gerard Manley Hopkins talk about the same theme: the environment, the nature, and the animals. But are these two sonnets sharing the same point of view? To find the similarities and distinguish what the differences are, one can juxtapose the two poems to see what Frost and Hopkins have written for the readers.

Frost's and Hopkins' sonnets are connected like chains with each other leading the readers into one world. It is as if Hopkins display one whole scenery while Frost gives little details from the whole. For instance, Hopkins also describes how the world “gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil/Crushed” and in Frost's sonnet, he writes about the small things, such as the spider and the moth that are gathered as a whole to create a nature just like the seeds to make the oil.

Both of the authors explains how the animals are involved in the natural world. For instance, Frost takes a spider and gradually talks about how it eats the moth by trapping it with its web. Hopkins' sonnet brings up about the humans and how the humans are using the nature for their need. As Frost says he “found a dimpled spider,” Hopkins' sonnet say how the humans and other creatures live together in one environment.

The sonnets also share a similar characteristic of the nature: instinct to survive. Both of them tribute how different animals in different environment try to survive in their own special ways. For instance, Frost describes what a spider does for its living. The spider builds its web and catches its prey with the web. The nature has made the spider to utilize its home as a weapon and a shield. This is “God's Grandeur.” Hopkins also gives the same example with humans. As Hopkins wrote, humans use seeds, soil, and the nature itself to provide shelter and food, just like the spider. These two distinct animals that don't have any similarities in their survival rules, they both share the fact on how to find their necessities and to live by coexisting with the nature.

Two authors also show appreciation of the environment throughout their sonnets. In Hopkins' poem, he wrote how the “world is charged with the grandeur of God” and “nature is never spent” even after the humans use up all the good from the nature. He believes that as long as there's God to protect over the world, no creatures are able to end the cycle of the nature. In Frost's sonnet, he views the spider and the moth with awe. The way he questions the existence of the creatures and how he compares them with delicate flower let the reader know that he is viewing the sight of the normal animal behavior with an extent of gratitude.

Yet among the similar ideas, both sonnets tend to go on opposite directions. In Frost's sonnet, the spider is “fat and white” that kills a moth that was “like a white piece of rigid satin cloth.” Throughout the whole sonnet, Frost describes how a beautiful colored spider eats the weak, light, and defenseless moth. It's a natural habit for the spiders to eat other insect species in order to survive. But the first impression that the reader gets is the grossness and disgust. Natural as it is, the spider is portrayed to be carnivorous. It is not so easy for all the people to enjoy watching a scene like that.

Frost also wrote some dark images in his poem. Just as he finished talking about the white moth, he talks about “death” and “blight.” He catches the readers with how the people would think when they see the spider at first sight. One would assume that Frost would make the “snow-drop spider” into a marvelous living creature because of the way he writes about it. But then he brings back the negative images of the spider, just like how people imagine them.

Hopkins' sonnet take the other way around. As written in his sonnet, he wrote that the world “wears man's smudge and shares man's smell.” But is it really natural for the nature to have human smell on them? Although it seems wrong for the humans to destroy the nature that is “charged with the grandeur of God,” one can easily say that it doesn't seem too wrong because the humans are trying to survive, just like the spider from Frost's sonnet. Humans “have trod,” walking on top of the nature, ruining the beauty of the nature. Hopkins even repeat the phrase “have trod” to give the readers a meaning that people have ran over the nature over and over for many years. Nevertheless, this point of view can be taken as granted because people are adapted to this kind of environment.

Hopkins also writes that prove that people just use up all the goods, not noticing how the nature is created. He wrote how the “soil is bare” that not even “can foot feel.” The soil is used up so much that there is no more of nature to step on. But this is taken seriously when the whole world can see it in front of them. The soil is the base of everything in the world and if it doesn't exist anymore, what would? Nothing would grow and it would just “being shod” as what Hopkins wrote.

Spider eating moth or humans walking over the nature, which one would you think it's more crucial? As for me, both of them are all natural no matter how one looks wrong than the other. There's no way one can look better than the other. If we, humans, cooperate with the nature, we can live forever with it, just like what Hopkins says. “Nature would be never spent.”