18 pages • 36-minute read
Amazing Grace
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Themes
The Search for Transformation
The hymn centers on the speaker’s realization that they need to turn around their degraded life. They label themselves a “wretch” (Line 2), and they’re looking for change. In the poem, God—specifically, the Christian God—engenders radical change. The speaker realizes the “precious” (Line 7) value of God’s grace immediately, in “the hour [they] first believed” (Line 8). The speaker chronicles the vast difference between their pre- and post-transformational selves through a series of metaphors: “I once was lost, but now am found, / was blind, but now I see” (Lines 3-4). The juxtaposition reinforces the speaker’s successful quest for transformation. They have gone from feeling unstable to inhabiting a sturdy existence; their lack of perspective has vanished, and a new vantage point—the foresight supplied by God—takes over. Thus, the speaker feels “saved” (Line 2). God has pulled the speaker away from their harmful path and set them in a rewarding direction.
This theme works within a non-denominational Christian context, summoning the nonspecific Christian belief in God’s grace rather than detailing a specifically Anglican variant on faith. In the general drive to feel different or revamp life, God is a symbol of a positive, all-consuming force. The speaker relents and gives themselves to God’s irrepressible power, which, in turn, changes the speaker for their benefit. The hymn underscores the importance of this external source. The speaker can’t change themselves alone, but requires aid to bring dramatically positive change to their struggle.
Mutability Versus Permanence
The poem juxtaposes mutability with permanence, contrasting the ephemeral and liable to change with the irrevocable.
Sometimes the ability to transform is a positive one. The speaker is not a completely stable being, going from a “wretch” (Line 2) to a “life of joy and peace” (Line 20) as their identity—defined by belief—fluctuates. However, this happiness, once found, becomes fixed. When the speaker had an unhappy existence, they were fortunately capable of altering their desolate life through the catalyst of grace—God’s “precious” (Line 7) favor that brings permanence. With God as their ally, the speaker doesn’t have to worry about life’s vicissitudes; rather than continuing to face “many dangers” (Line 9), they can look forward to the reward of a heavenly “home” (Line 12) where they can hold onto jubilation and tranquility even after death. The world itself can end and the speaker will still be with God “forever” (Line 24).
However, the fleetingness implied in the ability to transform makes the material world pale in comparison to God, who counters this kind of unreliability. God doesn’t have physical traits, so people can’t measure or quantify God. The rhetoric of change doesn’t apply to God, as there’s nothing concrete to alter. God can’t change: God can only be God. There is no expiration date or calamity that can verifiably extinguish God. God doesn’t grow old and die like a human, nor can God “dissolve like snow” (Line 21) or suffer if “the sun forbear to shine” (Line 22), unlike the Earth, which will soon end. Nothing can shake God—or the speaker, who now shares a “portion” (Line 15) of God’s unlimited domain after finding that “grace my fears relieved” (Line 6). The speaker can confidently face whatever change the world brings now that they have a link with the unshakable God.
Hope Versus the Precarious Future
The first two themes link to the third theme, as transformation, mutability, and permanence are key to the notion of hope. The quest for transformation suggests that people don’t need to resign themselves to an unpleasant life. Like the hymn’s speaker, people can change and redirect themselves toward positive places. The mutability of the world provides hope. Unlike God, people don’t have to embrace fixed identities. The speaker doesn’t have to continue to be a “wretch” (Line 2): They can become something else, and they do.
However, permanence gives hope too. Once the speaker changes and accepts God’s grace, they don’t have to worry about reverting to their former state of disgrace, as change doesn’t produce further change but stability. Through God, the speaker gains the hope of surviving “toils and snares” (Line 9). Filled with grace, the speaker believes that God “will lead [them] home” (Line 12) to heaven. There’s no vulnerability. The grace instills the speaker with brawny optimism. Secure with God, the speaker confidently declares, “God, who called me here below, / will be forever mine” (Line 23-24). The speaker doesn’t have to hope that God will remain with them; the poised tone indicates that God’s inevitability is fact.
The hymn’s focus on hope has made it popular in lethal, brutal situations where the future seemed volatile and harmful. As Steve Turner notes in Amazing Grace, enslaved people often sang the hymn, American Civil War soldiers cited the hymn in letters, and Judy Collins used it to reflect the violence of the Vietnam War. The hymn’s speaker also looks toward the future, but uses the idea of grace to retain hope that it will not be as full of “dangers, toils and snares” (Line 9) as the past has been, and that instead, “grace has brought me safe thus far, / and grace will lead me home (Lines 11-12). God is thus the bulwark that helps a person battle the “many dangers” (Line 9) and stay “safe” (Line 11) against an unpredictable future, providing them with hope that their life and world won’t always be as menacing.
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