Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem, "God's Grandeur" cautions of mankind to heed God's word with a life that demonstrates a belief in Him. The poet asks, "Why do men then now not reck his rod?/Generation have trod, have trod, have trod,/And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil" (Hopkins 4-6). Here we see that the poet believes that mankind's knowledge can never exceed God's. He reaches this conclusion by looking toward nature, which confirms God's presence. When the poet addresses skeptics saying, "For all this, nature is never spent/There lives the dearest freshness deep down things" (9-10), we see his argument for all things operating together to represent the presence of God. .

             Another take on the state of the world can be seen in William Butler Yeats' poem, "Easter 1916," which is filled with a bleak outlook. The poet writes about the people he sees on the street with "polite meaningless words" (Yeats 6), impressing upon us the apathy he sees overtaking his country. The people speak to one another with "polite meaningless words" (8) and he understands that they have "changed utterly" (14). The change he becomes aware of causes him to be remorseful because he realizes that the rebellion the country experienced was a "terrible beauty" (16). Things changed in one way but then they had not really changed at all.

             Both poets express the modernist views that looked toward a new set of values rather than seeking new ways of advancement and technology. Hopkins urges mankind to see God in the world around him and Yeats urges man to see the goodness in each other before it is too late.