“Thou art indeed just, Lord” (R.Mahanty-9475981116)
Hopkins’
“Thou art indeed just, Lord” was written in Dublin on March17, 1889. This sonnet is one
of the terrible sonnets written at the final poetic phase of his life and this
poem is also not published during his life-time. This sonnet is called as a
dark or terrible sonnet because it deals with the frustration and the
despondency of the poet’s life as well as of his poetic career. A gloomy mood
of deep anguish is quite present in this sonnet. Everywhere there is a dark veil
of pessimism.
Comment
on the significance of the title “ Thou art indeed just, Lord”.
The title of
the poem “Thou Art Indeed Just, Lord” is taken from the vulgate version of the
Bible, Old Testament, Jeremiah, 12:1. The Latin epigraph in English translation
means “ Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I dispute with thee: yet what I plead
before thee is just: why do the ways of the impious prosper?”Actually the title
obviously manifests the righteousness of God, the almighty. But the poet again
here implies his own non-emotive-non life which is the another name of ultimate
frustration.
Explanations
“ Why do sinners’ ways prosper? And why
must Disappointment all I endeavour end? Wert thou my enemy, o thou my friend”
These famous lines are extracted from G.M. Hopkins’
notable sonnet “ Thou art Indeed just, Lord”. Here the poet points out some
sort of disappointment which has befall in his life. The lines record his
genuine grief for being deprived of His justice, despite all his faith in and
devotion to Him.
The
poet complains of God’s unjustness to him. He has served Him with honest devotion,
but fails to enjoy His favour. He, therefore, argues with Him and disputes His
justness to all. After all, despite all his sincere and dedicated service to
Him, he has failed to enjoy, His favour. At the same time, he finds all around
him how the sinner flourish while the true devotees like him, languish. To
whatever tasks he may set himself, he finds only failure. Indeed, his earnest
efforts bear no fruit and this leads him to doubt genuinely God’s justness. He
is haunted and disturbed with the question how far God, the Lord of life and all,
is just to all.
The lines record
the depth of unrest in the poets devoted mind. The poem was written
particularly at a time of the poet’s physical and mental desperation. As a
result, he raises here this cardinal question about His justness.
“See, banks…………..send my roots rain.”
These
lines are taken from Hopkins’ “ Thou art Indeed just, Lord”, a famous terrible
sonnet or dark sonnet .Here the priest-poet’s physic aesthetic aridity has been
exposed in stark opposition to the abundance of fruitfulness and productivity
in nature and among other creatures .This finds a bold exposition in a note of
complaint, though with due respect.
In this
terrible sonnet from the last phase of his poetic career Hopkins, the Jesuit
priest cum poet, complains against the indifference of God, the Almighty, to
him, though he had dedicated his life to His service. With a view to focusing
on his own infecundity, he points to the several sinners, who prosper at each
spare moment, though they do not care a fig for God. For Hopkins divine grace is synonymous with
imaginative creativity. This accounts for why he has become unproductive in a
spectacle where the bushes and thickets revitalize themselves and where birds
build and procreate. In stark contrast to this panorama of proliferation and
fruitfulness the poet left in a desert of unproductivity and desolation goes on
straining hard to give birth to ‘one work that wakes’. One understands that the
image underwhich the priest-poet identifies himself is that of a tree in a
desert that sends its roots deeper into the soil in search of water. This water
at the symbolic level is divine grace which can only restore the fertility of
the poet.
These lines combine
sadness, despair and prayer. The agonized poet, though complains against the
indifference of God, never loses his respect for his creator, because he knows
that as a Jesuit priest it is his final trial after which there must be an
illumination of divine love. Here is again a biblical reference. In the Bible
a man is frequently compared to a tree.
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(R.Mahanty-9475981116)
