# Noontide Hymn explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by George MacDonald.

## What happens

A hymn expressing deep love for God's creation and a greater love for God's will, culminating in the realization that embracing God's will deepens love for the world itself.

## Themes in this chapter

### Nature as Divine Revelation

The speaker loves God's skies, mists, fields, mountains, and wind as expressions of the divine.

### Love as Ultimate Strength

Love for God's will is presented as the highest and most transformative affection.

## Character check-ins

### God

Addressed throughout the hymn as the source of skies, winds, truth, people, and will.

### Unknown

The speaker who declares love for God's creation and will.

## Key lines

> I love thy skies, thy sunny mists, Thy fields, thy mountains hoar, Thy wind that bloweth where it lists⁠— Thy will, I love it more.

I cherish the beauty of the sky, the mist, the fields, and the ancient mountains, and the free wind, but I cherish your will even more.

_Establishes the central contrast between love for creation and love for God's will._

> But when thy will my life doth hold Thine to the very core, The world, which that same will doth mould, I love, then, ten times more!

When your will completely possesses my life, I love the world that your will shapes ten times more than before.

_Climax revealing that submission to God's will intensifies love for the world._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_8_se/chapters/noontide-hymn
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_8_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_8_se/chapters