To mark the Easter weekend, The Prince of Wales has recorded Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem, God’s Grandeur. The poem offers a moment of refreshment as we move from Winter into Spring.
The poem was played during the Easter Meditation at Stonyhurst College today. This virtual service is especially important to many this year as they may not be able to attend an Easter service in person. Gerard Manley Hopkins attended Stonyhurst as a child and later taught at the college; he is widely regarded as the finest Catholic poet in the English language.
The Prince of Wales narrates the Gerard Manley Hopkins Poem, God’s Grandeur. (@ClarenceHouse)
The poem reads:
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.
To mark Easter this year, Buckingham Palace and Clarence House released two new images of The Queen and Prince Charles talking a walk in the grounds of Frogmore Cottage, Windsor, following the easing of lockdown restrictions in the UK.
Her Majesty and The Prince of Wales enjoy a walk together at Frogmore. (Chris Jackson/Getty)
In 2019, Prince Charles issued his second Easter message, in an article for The Telegraph. His Easter message quoted St John and discussed some of the tragedy seen in 2019 up to that point.
To commemorate Easter in 2020, The Prince of Wales contributed to the Anglican service at Westminster Abbey.
Of course, one day, Charles will become Head of the Church of England.
