thou art indeed just, lord if i contend by Gerard manly hopkins

G.M. Hopkins – 

Gerard manly Hopkins was an English poet, Roman Catholic convert and Jesuit priest who due to his large accumulated fame is considered by different readers as the greatest Victorian poet of religion, of nature, or of melancholy. he was a inventor who led experimental explorations in use of prosody and imagery in a period of traditional verse but because his style of writing so much differed from those of his era , his best poems were not accepted for publication during his lifetime only in later period their worth was recognized. 

 Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend 

 Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend 

With thee; but, sir, so what I plead is just. 

Why do sinners’ ways prosper? and why must 

Disappointment all I endeavour end? 

    Wert thou my enemy, O thou my friend, 

How wouldst thou worse, I wonder, than thou dost 

Defeat, thwart me? Oh, the sots and thralls of lust 

Do in spare hours more thrive than I that spend, 

Sir, life upon thy cause. See, banks and brakes 

Now, leavèd how thick! lacèd they are again 

With fretty chervil, look, and fresh wind shakes 

Them; birds build – but not I build; no, but strain, 

Time’s eunuch, and not breed one work that wakes. 

Mine, O thou lord of life, send my roots rain.

Analysis- 

G.M Hopkins was an religious men in above poetry his one way conversation with god is shown in which he says that he truely thinks that god is just in his actions and all what he does is for their betterment but even then he wants to argue his case in front of him as what he ask is just/right. The poet now asks god that why it is that that sinners prosper in this world and he face disappointment/failure in everything. he asks god is he his friend or enemy he again says if he is friend than how is he better then his enemy. He says that the worst kind of sinners(here Hopkins mean sexual sinners ) prosper even in their spare time and he who spent his whole life for his cause do not. now hopkins say that he sees banks of river where vegetation (chervil an small plant that grows in England and that blooms in spring with white flowers) is being shaken by wind, the birds are building nests, but he says that unlike them he cannot create something new and fresh for nature he is just like an eunuch who cannot breed new ideas which will last in time, in last line he prays to god that like he sends rain for these plants to prosper please also send rain of imagination towards him so he may too prosper