The Ghost and the Spider

In this essay I will examine how the themes of nature and death are explored in the poems, Design by Robert Frost and God’s Grandeur, by Gerard Manley Hopkins.  

Nature finds the means to overcome adversity, letting new life thrive in the face of death and destruction.  In his poem, Design, Robert Frost speculates as to natures capacity for intricacy and its ability to sustain and destroy different parts of an ecosystem.  “What brought the kindred spider to that height, / Then Steered the white moth thither in the night?” (11-12).  In to survive, the spider must catch and consume its prey, but first it has to set its trap.  It would seem awfully peculiar if a spider were to build a web in a place where it was not going to catch anything.   Frost is pointing out how nature creates intricate ecosystems that are beautifully balanced.  Similarly, in Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem, God’s Grandeur, he says “...nature is never spent;/ there lives the dearest freshness deep down things” (9-10).  Hopkins is also commenting on how nature is strong enough to survive through many hardships, even the footprints left by humans.  He says there is a freshness that will persist through the trials of time, and man.   

The poets use figurative language to focus our attention at the beauty of nature, in its essence: purely devoted to the creation of new life that will flourish and overcome the challenges of natural selection.  Frost elegantly paints a scene, “A snow-drop spider, a flower like a froth,/ And dead wings carried like a paper kite” (7-8).   Even though this scene depicts the mortality of one organism devouring another, at another level it is an example of how delicate and deliberately the elements in an ecosystem are balanced.   The spider was white so that it would blend in to the flower, so the moth would be fooled into falling into the web.  In the same way, Hopkins closes his poem with an equally vivid scene, “Oh, morning...the Holy Ghost over the bent/ World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings” (12-14).  Hopkins is bending his words, showing us a scene with a bird caring for its young as the dawn of a new day approaches, yet he is also implying that no matter how much people corrupt and destroy the world, it will still find a way to replenish itself.   In Hopkins’ poem, he is attributing nature’s ability prevail to God: the Holy Ghost ushers in the dawn over the arching horizon, spreading her bright wings and marking the birth of a new day-- at this, Hopkins gasps “ah!” astonished by the beauty of his scene.  Whereas the beauty is found in the act of nature repairing itself in Hopkins’ poem, Frost focuses on the physical beauty of nature in its pure whiteness.

In spite of showing nature to have so much outer beauty Frost holds the position that there could be something wicked controlling  wildlife  and that “design of darkness...govern[s] in a thing so small” (14-15).  Frost is reversing the connotations of whiteness, which usually have to do with purity and serenity, and using it to describe a spider, which is usually considered to be a dark and disgusting animal.  He also contends that the white heal-all is secretly sinister, leading to the death of the unsuspecting moth.   Hopkins writes, “The world is charged with the grandeur of God...It gathers to a greatness, like ooze of oil/ Crushed” (1-4).  Hopkins compares the grandeur of God to that of crushed oil. 

I dwell in possibility

Emily Dickinson's poem, "I dwell on possibility" is about an imaginary house which she is creating in the realm of her poetry. Having full control over the dimensions of the house, she creates a fantastic abode using the endless materials of her imagination. She says it is a fairer house than prose, because she can use her skills in the craft of poetry to manipulate the structure of her house. Therefore we must assume that her house made out of prose has some limited boundaries and this house is not as satisfying to live in. Dickinson's use of the dash is similar to that of a coma in a list. She separates nearly every idea with a dash, leading to an overall unity of all the elements in the poem. In the first strophe she is making comparisons to her house of prose, saying it has more windows and doors. The she takes it further in deliberating on the limitless possibilities she has to work with. More rooms than there are cedar trees, and a roof that stretches as far as the sky. There is no room for dissatisfaction of the eye she says. And of course, there wouldn't be any, because she would only have the fairest guests to her home. And to pay the mortgage all she has to do is continue doing her work, which is spreading her hands and embracing the possibilities of her perfect abode and paradise. So in a sense her job is to keep on being creative, through her words, being a poet.