“Thou Art Indeed Just, Lord, If I Contend” by Gerard Manley Hopkins is a poem about confusion and contention with the divine. The narrator's progression through the poem is interesting. Throughout, he speaks directly to God. However, the manner in which he speaks, as well as his view of God changes as the poem progresses.
In the first stanza, the narrator speaks to God fearfully and deferentially. He precedes everything negative he says with something positive. For instance, the narrator begins the poem by appealing to God by telling Him how right and just he is. He then immediately asks God why the wicked prosper and why the narrator's own endeavors always end in disappointment. The narrator is frustrated at God because the narrator seems to lead the life of a good Christian and never is rewarded for it while the wicked thrive. The way the narrator sees it, God is punishing him.
In the second stanza, his tone of voice toward God changes to be more aggressive. He still qualifies his criticism of God by appealing to his vanity, but this time the criticism is more blatant and he spends less time with praise. This stanza is essentially a big insult right to God's face. He basically tells him “if the way you treat me is the way you treat your friends, then how do you treat your enemies?” He tells God, an infallible being that he is wrong to treat the narrator the way he does. He essentially calls God his enemy.
In the last two paragraphs, the narrator barely even tries to be civil with God. He calls him sir on the first line of stanza three and then goes on a rant. In stanza three the narrator talks about the lackadaisical freedom of nature. That nature is some kind of playground. Then he says that he isn't part of this natural playground. He works hard, he uses the word “strains” in line 12. He is speaking about the nature and intensity of his work by saying that he doesn't just work, he strains, his life is painful in everything he does. Then he calls himself “time's eunuch” and says that none of his toil rewards him, whether it be with the tangible reward he was referring to at the beginning of the poem or with life, with children, with pets, with even a refreshing breeze (which the chervil got for free in line 11). He is saying that all his life's devotion, all his toil, all his strain, his life's work has left him with nothing. Not only that, it has left him an eunuch, incapable of attaining a suitable reward for his work.
Then, in the final line of the poem, the narrator challenges God by saying that if he was God, he would send himself rain. He isn't even saying that he would grant himself power or popularity or a life of luxury, he is saying that he would give himself the opportunity for prosperity, he would give himself the means to grow, which he says is more than he is getting from God as it is.
