Rogers first published "The Greatest Grandeur" in 1993. The poem, like most of her poetry, represents an attempt to transcend traditional religious views, to look at the natural world and find in it guides that can help one attain spirituality. At the time that this poem was published, the search for spirituality outside the tenants of traditional religions was on the rise as a commercial force in American society. This social phenomenon, which reached its peak in the mid-1990s, was broadly referred to as the New Age movement.

It is difficult to define the New Age movement with any precision. For one thing, its origins are uncertain. Some people relate its rise to the spiritual void left by 1960s counterculture skepticism, while others cite anxiety about the coming millennium as being the main force. Another problem in defining it is that, like most social movements, the...