“…we were meant for – made for things that give and that mean to give glory to God.” Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844 – 1889)
Romantic poets see the implication of imagination, myth, symbol and organic nature, and see it as part of the great endeavour to overcome the split between subject and object, the self and the world, the conscious and the unconscious. This is the central creed of the great Romantic poets… Rene Wellek (refrece)
The Romantic period was therefore characterised by a return to nature and feelings. Wild natural beauty and human emotions were considered more important than anything else. Hopkins was of course influenced by this, as were many writers of his time. Romantic poets were also very concerned with the world around them and the people in it. Most of the Romantic poets, or poets influenced by Romanticism, lodged a sort of social protest within their poetry. One such poet that immediately springs to mind is William Blake who seemed to take a particular dislike to the abuse of children.
This is also something that I find extremely interesting because the ideas of Romanticism were often in direct conflict with the Church. Hopkins became a Jesuit priest and a parish preacher and h

Man is marvelling at the creation of his own hands and has forgotten the creation of God.

The speaker is trying to make us understand that no matter how we try to destroy the earth, no matter how we try to destroy each other; nature has always been there and will therefore always be there. Thus “nature” in line nine could represent God as having no beginning and no end, triumphing over earth and all of man. It would thus be impossible for man to extinguish the light of God as represented by “nature” in line nine.

For me the essence of this poem lies in line nine. “And for all this, nature is never spent.”

and he burned all his poetry up to this point. It was only until four years later, after studying the writings of Duns Scotus a Medieval thinker, that he started writing poetry again. (rfeence)

The form of the poem is of particular importance. This poem takes the form of a sonnet and it is a form used mostly for love poems. Why use a sonnet to write a poem in which you criticise people for being lustful, greedy and destructive? The speaker might be trying to give us the full experience of the poem by taking us through it and letting us experience first hand how bad things are and then telling us not to give up hope by showing us how good it could be. In a sense the speaker is giving scathing criticism and in the same breath he is providing us with a better alternative in the form of love for God.