Pied Beauty—Gerard Manley Hopkins
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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.
Photo by Rob Potter on Unsplash
For the unique twi-natured Son,
For Jacob's speckled lambs,
For the begging father's unbelieving faith,
For the begun good work not yet done.
A previous reading of "Pied Beauty" inspired me to write more poetry about the beauty of nature and that we can give praise to our Maker for it all. I wrote my own pied poem here: https://chandagriese.substack.com/p/a-fine-magpie