Pied Beauty by Gerard Manley Hopkins

 Pied Beauty by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Glory be to God for dappled things –

For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;

For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;

Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;

Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough;

And áll trádes, 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.

INTRODUCTION –

Pied Beauty is a poem by the famous Victorian poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. It was written in 1877 but published in 1918 in his collection, Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins. It is a curtal sonnet, which means that it is ¾ of a usual sonnet. Instead of an octave and a sestet, it contains a sestet and a quintet (stanza with three and half-lines). The rhyme scheme of the poem is ABCABC DBCDC. Pied means having two colors, so the poet describes the beauty which contains more than one color. It is a religious poem or hymn where the poet praises God for his marvelous creations.

 

 

POET –

Gerard Manley Hopkins (28 July 1844 – 8 June 1889) was a Victorian poet. He is best known for his use of sprung rhythms and the invention of the unique curtal sonnet. His works usually contained themes of nature and religion. His best works include God’s Grandeur, The Sea and The Skylark, Pied Beauty, and The Windhover.

SUMMARY –

LINES 1 TO 6 –

The poet thanks God in the very first line to create things that are spotty and of different colors. He gives the sky's example, which is present in different color variations, just like a spotty brown cow. He thanks God for the small pinkish dots on a trout’s skin, which shine when the trout swims in the water. He is thankful for the fallen chestnuts, which resemble burning coals and the finch's wings (a bird). He then thanks God for the different varieties of land God has provided the human beings with – some are used for cattle grazing (fold), some are left alone to renourish their fertility (fallow), and lastly, some lands are used to grow crops (plough). He is thankful for all the different work humans do.

LINES 7 TO 11 –

The poet continues describing the different things as contradictory, original, unique, and other. He says that all these things are fickle, i.e., they can be changed and covered in freckles – no one knows the reason. These things are different in speed, taste, and light. But they all have one similarity, which is their creator. God has created all these unique and varied things, but He remains unchanged. Hence, we should praise him for these marvels.

 

THEMES –

• God’s Majesty – God’s power and his majesty is described here in this poem. He is the creator of the universe and all the various things present in it. The poet admires God for his uniqueness and singularity in these creations. 

END –

Hence, we can say that the poem is a sort of religious poem or hymn. The poet uses different examples to prove his point. The poem contains alliterations and similes. It sees God's majesty not just in nature's sheer variety but also in the labors of humankind and in the abstract categories that people use to understand their world experience.