Poem: “Pied Beauty” by Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1844 – 1889
Pied Beauty
Glory be to God for dappled things —
…For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
……For rose-moles all in stipple on trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
…Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
……And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
…Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
……With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
………………………………Praise him.
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Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1844 – 1889
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It’s been a while since I posted a poem here, but this poem—and the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins generally—is a favourite. I love the sense of delight in the poem and the intense observation of nature and differing aspects and textures of the world. I also love Hopkins’ famous sprung rhythm and use of alliteration, which remain distinctive but were very different from the poetic norms of the Victorian era.
Gerard Manley Hopkins, who converted to Catholicism in adulthood and was ordained as a Jesuit, is now regarded as one of the more significant poets of the Victorian era, although his work was not published until some time after his death.
This is one of my all-time favorite poems! Manley Hopkins did not live a happy life, but he certainly wrote glorious poetry.
I’ve always loved his poetry but only found out much later about his sad life. I considered putting something about that in, but decided to let the poem speak for itself.
Thanks for sharing this wonderful poem. It is one of my favorites. The descriptions really allow a mental picture of the beauty of what he describes. I wish I could describe visual beauty as well as this poet!
“Evocative” and “powerful” are two of the descriptors I always associate with Hopkins’ poetry. He definitely sets a high creative bar.